The Key That the Jailer Threw Away
by El-Cid-The-Champion
Summary: A Kingdom Hearts and Darkwing Duck crossover. Sora visits the world of Saint Canard. Takes place during the second game KH II My third full length story.
1. Prologue

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

_Greeting fellow fan-fic writers. This is elcid009 starting work on my new full length story and glad to be back writing. I got hired onto a second catering company for the holidays and they assured me that they were booked through December. So it looks like I'll have plenty of work from now on. I HATE being broke during the holidays so now that I'm in a good mood I feel the time has begun to start work on my new story. Kingdom Hearts crossover with Darkwing Duck_.

**Prologue**

Roxas marched into the gathering hall as usual. He knew he had another mission to do and without hesitation marched straight towards Saix. He was starting to feel a little at home here in the Organization at last. Though he often wondered about the lost members; what had happened at Castle Oblivion? Why had so many members suddenly died? And what was Axel's part in all this. Axel still refused to answer any questions he had about the events surrounding Castle Oblivion no matter how many times Roxas asked.

"Ah good to see you Roxas," came Saix' mellow voice, "You and Xion will be on a mission together today, do you understand?"

"Yes sir," came Roxas's reply

"We're sending you two to investigate a new world," continued Saix, "we weren't originally even going to try this world but decided to send you two and see if it was worth exploring. Don't forget to conduct a through investigation."

"We'll do our best," said Xion, as she entered the room.

Roxas stretched out his hand and opened a portal and both he and Xion stepped through.

The world they emerged into was unlike any they had ever seen. It took Roxas a moment to realize that he was standing upon a massive suspension bridge. The bridge lead into a massive downtown looking area. The city looked alive and busy and its sight was enticing to the two young teens. It also seemed as though it was nighttime

"Wow," exclaimed Xion, "This place looks great, I've never been to a place like this before."

"Yeah I know," said Roxas, "This world looks different from all the other ones we've been to."

"I guess we better get going," said Xion, "we've got a big city to cover."

"Hey why don't we split up?" suggested Roxas, "we can cover more ground that way. We'll meet back here at the bridge when we're done."

With that the two went their separate ways to explore the great city.

* * *

><p>Roxas saw many remarkable things as he explored the city, but one of the most remarkable had to be a large greenhouse the happened upon. The greenhouse was exceptionally big and seemed to house a number of interesting and unknown plants inside it. Cautiously he stepped inside to have a better look around.<p>

"Oh my beauteous flowers," said a voice, "You're the only ones who understand me,"

Roxas peaked out from behind some bushes, and almost didn't believe his eyes. He was looking at what looked like a large walking plant. It was light green and had a beak for a mouth and roots for feet; its head was topped off with purple plant like bushes. The thing was pacing back and forth in front of a table with several potions talking to what looked like potted flowers.

"Ever since I turned into a walking plant I've been lonely," said the thing, "I've tried to fill my life with other things but nothing seems to work. Sigh my heart aches for a companion."

Roxas continued to watch the thing in earnest still not exactly sure what it was. The plant-like thing continued to talk to itself.

"I once tried growing my own bride, but that didn't work out so much. But you know what they say back to the drawing board. No reason I can't try again and this time get it right. Right Spike?"

Roxas turned his head to see another strange creature enter the greenhouse; this one looked like a giant kind of Venus-fly trap. It was also standing on roots and had mop of red leaves for hair. But it seemed in character to act more like a dog.

"The only thing is I'll need a large amount of electricity to make this work properly, and my last battle with that dratted Darkwing Duck damaged my generator. It will take a long time to fix, if only there was a way to fix it faster. What do you think Spike?"

The creature that looked like a Venus-fly trap began sniffing the air and suddenly began growling. Then in a sudden move it pointed straight towards the area where Roxas was hiding and jumped into the bushes. In the next instant there was a small struggle and Roxas was ejected from his hiding place and landed at the feet of the green plant thing.

"What have we here?" asked the plant thing, "looks like an intruder to me."

Roxas quickly stood up on his feet and drew out his key-blade. "Who are you?" he demanded

"My name is Bushroot," said the plant thing, "but it hardly matters since it will be the last thing you hear, get 'em Spike!"

**[As always all fights will be detailed in the Appendix section; this one however is a bit special since it would take place in the game "358/2 Days" so think of the fighting style as that]**

The creature began attacking as it tried to bite Roxas with its huge jaws. Roxas did his best to counter these attacks and landed blow after blow on the creature. The key-blade strikes continued as did the sounds of snarling bites. Finally it seemed as though the creature had bitten too deep and inflicted a grave wound upon Roxas. But this also had the effect of pushing him into his Limit territory. Summoning all of his inner strength Roxas activated his Limit attack. Roxas began to glow white as he felt the strength gather inside him. His blows were now twice as powerful and twice as faster than Spike could hope to dodge. It looked as though he was finally able to turn the tide on Spike defeating him.

"My Spike!" cried Bushroot, "what have you done? I'll get you for this!"

Roxas would have normally stayed and fought but he was too weak after his battle with Spike, so instead he ran back. He figured he had best leave this world even if his investigation wasn't complete. He was running for a long time before he returned to the bridge and saw that Xion was there too. It appeared as though she also was running from something.

"Roxas!" she declared, "Thank-goodness you're here, we've got to go!"

"What happened?" asked Roxas

"No time to explain," she replied seizing his hand, "let's just say I was seen by someone and now they're after me. I didn't get a chance to finish the investigation. What happened to you?"

"Same thing," said Roxas, "we'd better head for the portal and get out of here!"

Finally they found the bridge and on it was the portal they'd used to get here. It was just as well for Bushroot was still chasing Roxas. As they headed for the portal Roxas caught a glimpse of the person who was chasing Xion.

He looked a little bit like a dog, though he was standing upright. He was wearing the strangest uniform that Roxas had ever seen with a pattern of yellow and blue. Also on his person were a bunch of unusual devices. It looked like he was wearing a battery on his back and a large electrical plug on his head.

"Stop you girl," shouted the other stranger in a somewhat raspy voice, "I'll get you."

Roxas and Xion had just reached the portal in time and quickly disappeared inside leaving a very confused pair of pursuers.

"Megavolt, is that you?" asked Bushroot, finally identifying the other by name.

"Yeah it's me," he replied, "I was over at the power plant sucking up energy when I noticed that girl in black spying on me."

"The boy with the orange hair was spying on me," said Bushroot, "but I don't know who he was? Did you recognize the girl?"

"No I didn't," said Megavolt, "but there was something off about them. I can't explain it but I feel that they weren't from around here."

"They both looked kind of young, and they were both dressed in the same clothes," observed Bushroot, "I don't know who they were but we should definitely keep an eye for them in the future. By the way did you say you were sucking up power?"

"Oh yeah I was," said Megavolt, "you know me I like to be fully charged, what were you up to?"

Bushroot paused for a few seconds before answering, "You know why don't you come back to my place and we can talk some more."

* * *

><p>"So both of you managed to be seen and were chased out of that world were you?" came Saix's voice. His voice was still soft but there was no mistaking the anger that was in it.<p>

"It's not like we planned for that to happen," said Roxas in defense, "things just kind of got out of control."

"You are not supposed to be seen and you are not supposed to interfere with things in the worlds," snapped Saix, "please tell me that your exploration was at least fruitful. Did you fully explore the place?"

"We-we-we didn't get a chance to study everything since we were interrupted," stammered Xion, "but if you give us another chance—"

"Silence!" interrupted Saix, "I see that even a simple exploration mission is too difficult for you two, and Roxas I expected more from you."

"Chill out dude," came a voice from across the room, "So they bungled a mission, who cares? It's not like that world was even that important anyway. We've got enough things going on in other worlds that we can afford to lose one."

"As always your opinion is appreciated, Xigbar," replied Saix with a touch of sarcasm. "The point," he continued, "is not whether or not that world is usable to us, but what kind of world is it and more importantly were there heartless in it?"

"Well now that you mention it" began Roxas, "there were no heartless in that world."

Saix now turned to face Roxas and was staring very deeply into his eyes. "You're sure about that?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah Roxas is right," chimed in Xion, "I didn't see any heartless there either. We were both around in that world long enough to know that there were no heartless. So there's really no point in going back there and I guess maybe us getting caught wasn't such a bad thing after all."

Saix considered this news for awhile making Roxas and Xion more worried about their possible fate. Finally he spoke, "if that is the case then perhaps loosing that world is not so big a loss. Still your actions were very foolish and could have had serious ramifications if we had to go back to that world."

"Why don't I look after them for awhile?" volunteered Axel who quickly got up from the couch. "I'm sure these two meant well but maybe they need just a little more seasoning before you take them out of the oven."

"I will report your actions to the Superior," concluded Saix, "You can take the next day off and do whatever you like while we figure out how to proceed from here. Though it is looking very likely that we will have no further contact with that world understand?"

Roxas and Xion both nodded their understanding.

"Very well get out of here then," barked Saix, and Xion, Roxas, and Axel quickly left the room.

* * *

><p>Axel, Roxas, and Xion had taken to their usual spot on the clock-tower to eat their ice cream. It had been a rough day but the fact that they were together here had finally allowed them to relax and unwind.<p>

"Boy you two were almost in big trouble there," said Axel, "I thought Saix was gonna march you straight to Xemnas and make you beg for forgiveness."

"This day sure was a bit touch and go," remarked Roxas, "I don't know what happened but I guess I was off my game today."

"Well you weren't the only one," laughed Axel, "what's your excuse Xion?"

Xion didn't respond, instead she just half-heartedly licked her ice cream and just kept starring down at her feet.

"What's wrong Xion?" asked Axel somewhat more concerned

:"I-I-I lied to them," she admitted

"What do you mean?" asked Roxas, "what did you lie about?"

"When Saix asked me about the heartless I told him there were none but that wasn't true," confessed Xion, "I saw some."

"What?" stammered Roxas, "where? Because I wasn't lying when I said I didn't see any. I actually didn't."

"That man with the weird suit," began Xion, "the one that had the plug on his head he was controlling them, I saw it. When I was spying on him he was draining power out of a power plant and began laughing manically. Then suddenly the heartless started appearing next to him. They looked like some kind of electric heartless. Even that guy seemed surprised at their appearance. I was so surprised I gasped and he heard me, that's what caused him to start chasing me."

"It sounds to me," said Axel, "that this was likely the first time heartless had been introduced in that world. Somehow that guy had given into his heart's desire for evil and it was that desire that summoned the heartless to him. You said he looked confused, I'll bet that was his first time ever seeing them, he probably doesn't even know how to control the things."

"I wasn't lying when I said I saw no heartless," said Roxas, "I did see this weird plant like thing that talked to itself it said something about being lonely and had a weird sort of pet. I guess the pet was able to find me. That's why I got chased. But all the time looking around his place I saw no heartless."

"Don't worry about it," said Axel, "Now that the Organization's decided not to go back to that world I doubt they ever would. It's like Xigbar said, we've got other more important things to worry about."

"That's too bad," replied Roxas, "I would have liked to explore that world a bit more, but if we don't have to worry about it then I guess it's for the better."

"Yeah," agreed Xion, "maybe someday if we get another vacation we can go back to that world and just hang out. By the way Roxas, do you remember what that world was called?"

"Oh yeah," said Roxas, "Saix told me this morning….I think it was called…..Saint Canard."


	2. Chapter 1

The Key That the Jailer Threw Away

_Alright guys and gals here's the first new chapter of my story I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it._

**Chapter: 1**

"Hey Sora how you doing?" asked Goofy

"I'm alright," replied Sora, he paused a bit before adding, "Well the truth is I've started feeling a bit down about our quest."

"What's wrong?" asked Donald

"We've been to so many worlds now and still haven't been able to find the King or Riku," said Sora, "I guess after awhile it starts to really affect you. I wonder if we'll ever see them again?"

"Ahh Cheer up Sora," piped Donald, "you know our ship runs on happy faces we all need to be happy if we ever wanna get anywhere."

"Haven't we been to all the worlds already though?" asked Sora, "where do we search now?"

"Garsh! I thought the Pride Lands was our last world too," said Goofy, "but it looks like there's a new one coming up on our scanners."

"There is?" exclaimed Sora excitedly, "What kind of world is it?"

"Let me see here," responded Goofy, "Looks to me like a huge city with a large population, the perfect place for heartless to hide."

"Or the perfect place for the King or Riku to be," added Donald.

"Well we won't know for sure until we get down there," advised Goofy.

"So let's get down there!" said Sora, "you guys are right, I can't give up until we've searched all the worlds!"

* * *

><p>Saint Canard was known for many things. Chief among them was the fact the city was, unfortunately, host to a large number of super-villains. These super-villains were a large problem for the city, but fortunately the city had a protector. That protector's name was Darkwing Duck. He was a masked crime-fighter who devoted his life to making the lives of Saint Canard citizens a bit better. Many a time had Darkwing tangled with the aforementioned super-villains, and always he had saved the day. But Darkwing couldn't be everywhere at once and tonight two of the city's super-villains were meeting in secret at a greenhouse to discuss how they might best beat their old foe.<p>

"Megavolt I don't understand why you brought bugs here," said an exasperated Bushroot, "you know how much damage these things could do to my precious plants."

Reginald Bushroot, more commonly know as Bushroot, was a half-duck half-plant creation. Once a brilliant scientist he had always been conducting experiments with plants convinced he could devise a way to learn to absorb sunlight like plants and never have to worry about food again. Unfortunately after being pushed too far he performed an experiment on himself that turned him into a walking plant-like thing. Rejected by society he now lived in isolation and turned to life of crime. Now here he was speaking to another of the city's super-villains

"These aren't ordinary bugs Bushroot," exclaimed Megavolt, "I've already told you that these bugs are brilliant and ingenious find. More importantly they could be our key to getting rid of Darkwing Dork forever."

Elmo Sputterspark, also known as Megavolt, was a rat-like creature that had the unique ability to draw and harness electricity. He gained the power through a failed high school science experiment that ended up electrocuting him. Unfortunately the experiment did more than just give him powers. It also fried some of his brain cells resulting in his loss of sanity. He was another of the city's super-villains and was one of Darkwing Duck's fiercest enemies. Recently he had gained another ability that he was now talking about with Bushroot.

"So what are these bugs then?" asked Bushroot, "and more importantly will they ruin my plants?"

"Forget about your plants, turnip head and listen," demanded Megavolt, "do you remember that day when we were both being spied on by those weird kids?"

"Yeah, I do," said Bushroot, "it wasn't that long ago was it?"

"No," replied Megavolt, "but the point is that was the day I first discovered these amazing creatures."

The creatures Megavolt was referring to looked like giant lightning bugs, but more colorful. They had huge green bodies with purple wings and black antenna. Then they had a large golden tip on the bottom of their bodies that was flashing. Megavolt had demonstrated their power earlier and these creatures could indeed shoot real lightning out of themselves.

**[I finally created my own original heartless for an area….Yeah! These heartless are unique to Saint Canard] **

"I believe it was also the day," began Bushroot, "that I asked you for help in creating me a bride and you said no."

"Well let's say I've had a change of heart," said Megavolt, "I have an offer for you."

"I'm listening," replied Bushroot

"I don't know how I was able to create these things," bean Megavolt, "one minuet I was drawing power and the next they suddenly appeared all around me. The strangest part is I don't even have to give them orders. Usually I just think of what I want them to do and they do it. They've proven to be effective minions but I want to know how to make more. I thought about using them to go up against Darkwing Dingbat but I'm worried about what happens if he defeats them. You're the only person I know who has a Science background so I figure you're the best person to help me learn more about them."

"So let me see if I've got this," said Bushroot, "I help you learn about these bugs and you'll fix my generator and help me to create my perfect bride?"

"You got it Bushy," said Megavolt, "and as a bonus we'll finish off Darkwing Duck and never have to worry about him again."

"Oh that is a very good bonus, I won't have to worry about him getting in my way anymore," agreed Bushroot, "Alright Sparky, you've got yourself a deal."

"Hey Bushroot one teeny tiny thing if we're going to work together," whispered Megavolt.

"What's that?" asked Bushroot

"DON'T CALL ME SPARKY!" screamed Megavolt, his voice comically blowing Bushroot away. Bushroot crashed into his pet Spike across the greenhouse.

"I don't think he likes that name," Bushroot whispered to his pet.

* * *

><p>"Here we are Sora," exclaimed Goofy, "according to the map this world is called Saint Canard."<p>

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had teleported from the gummy ship down onto an expansive suspension bridge. The bridge lead into a large metropolitan looking city and it looked as though it was deep into the night.

Sora took a few steps forward and suddenly it happened. His head began hurting, and suddenly he fell to the floor and began holding his head.

"Sora!" screamed Donald, "What's wrong?"

"Is your head okay," asked Goofy

Visions began flashing through Sora's head. He saw the same city that was standing before him, but he also saw a great greenhouse as well. The next vision was of a strange plant-like thing, next he saw what looked like a giant Venus fly-trap. Then as suddenly as it started it stopped.

"Sora what happened?" asked Goofy.

"Are you alright?" asked Donald.

"I-I-I Feel I've been here before," said Sora, "I can't explain it but I feel as though I've been to this world not to long ago."

"Garsh I don't think we've ever been to a place like this," said Goody.

"Yeah, this place doesn't look familiar at all," agreed Donald.

"It's more then that though," said Sora, "I feel like I know where we have to go. We have to find a greenhouse."

"A greenhouse?" asked Goofy, "why Sora?"

"I can't explain it," said Sora, "but we better start looking I think if we find that greenhouse we'll know what to do."

"Well let's go!" said Donald


	3. Chapter 2

The Key That the Jailer Threw Away

_My normal update rate when writing a multi-chapter book is about one new chapter a month. This of course may change and if I'm especially happy I'll write more. Conversely if I'm down in the dumps I may write less often. Also with the holidays coming up I'm swamped with catering work so I probably won't have as much time as I'd like. I hope that you my fans can be patient and remember that I will never leave a story unfinished. Now onto the next chapter _

**Chapter: 2**

Sora was still shaking his head as he began walking along the bridge into the heart of the city. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had been here before but nothing about the place seemed familiar. He took the lead guiding his companions towards the right of the city. Again it was almost like instinct but he really wished he could remember what it was about this place. It was almost as if some unknown force was guiding him and it knew where he needed to go, this unsettled him but he trusted the feelings.

"Hey Sora, do you remember anything else about this place?" asked Goofy

"That's just the thing," responded Sora, "I almost certain I've never been here before, but I feel like I know this place. I can't explain it. I don't even know if going to the greenhouse is the right thing to do."

"Well Garsh I guess all we can do is trust in ourselves," advised Goofy, "you've got the key-blade so I think we should trust you, and you should trust your feelings."

"Thanks Goofy, I sure hope your right," said Sora.

The trio continued their journey through the city and after awhile they arrived at a large greenhouse.

"Is this the place you saw in your vision Sora?" questioned Donald

Sora looked at the large building in front of him and starred hard at it for a long time before answering.

"Yeah this is the place, I'm sure of it," he said. "I feel we should be careful inside here."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy carefully entered the greenhouse and were surprised by what they saw. There were hundreds of different kinds of plants inside. The plants were unlike any they had ever seen before, and some of them looked like unique plants that weren't found anywhere else and were likely new species of undiscovered plants. As Sora was looking around he eventually began to hear approaching voices and quickly found cover behind some foliage.

"Hurry it up lettuce head," said a voice, "how long is this gonna take you?"

"Settle down Sparky," said another voice, "you can't rush science. And this species is proving exceptionally difficult."

Sora risked glancing through a gap in his leafy hiding place and saw yet another strange sight. A weird plant-like thing was standing next to something even stranger a rat-like thing in one of the strangest costumes he had ever seen. He was wearing a strange yellow suit and what looked like a plug on his head. The plant-like thing next to him looked like a cross between a duck and a vegetable. It was standing over what was clearly a heartless and examining it using a magnifying glass.

"I must say this is a strange species to say the least," said the plant-like thing, "I can't determine what exactly they're made of. But it seems as though they like dark places. Little sunlight and such, Also it seems that they're real good at ambushing things. They have a tendency to hide in the shadows and then suddenly pop out and surprise victims."

"Yeah that's all fascinating and everything," said the rat-like thing, "but how do we make more of them, and more importantly can anything destroy them. Remember we want to be able to use these things against Dark wing Duck."

"Well don't rush me," snapped the plant-like thing, "I'm a botanist not a zoologist, and this is a different kind of science. Maybe I need a second opinion, Spike come here real quick."

Sora looked around and saw a third figure entering the room. The best way to describe it was a walking Venus fly trap it acted a lot like a dog of some kind. The thing came into the room and started dancing around the plant-like thing again very much like a dog; it was even slobbering and panting. Then suddenly it became quite stiff and, much to Sora's horror, turned to face the exact spot where he was hiding. It began to growl and in the next instant it jumped into the bushed where Sora was hiding. There was a brief struggle and the sound of scraping then finally with a resounding thud Sora was ejected from his hiding place and thrown out into the open with the two strange creatures staring at him.

"Well it looks like we have an eavesdropper on our hands," began the plant-like thing, "once again Spike proves why he's a mutant plants best friend. Now let's see who we-" he stopped speaking as he looked closer at Sora.

"It's you!" he shouted accusingly, "Wait….what….how…..what are you doing here again?"

"Again?" asked Sora, "I've never been here before."

"Don't lie to me," said the plant like thing, "your hair looks different but I know it's you. Well this time you'll feel the wrath of Bushroot." Finally identifying himself by name.

"Hang on Bushroot," said the rat-like thing, "Are you sure it's the same guy he looks different."

"What are you talking about Megavolt?" asked Bushroot, "It's clearly him."

Sora stood up on his feet and materialized his key-blade in his hand. "I don't know what you two are talking about but I've never seen either of you before."

"Now who's the one lying," accused Bushroot, "You were spying on me not to long ago, except I think you were wearing different clothes."

"I'm telling you bushy, it ain't him," countered Megavolt, "Something about him seems off."

"I bet he's just trying to fool us," said Bushroot, "But it doesn't matter this time we'll get him."

"You'll have to deal with us too," exclaimed Donald jumping out of the plants. Goofy joined him as well.

"Oh that's it," screamed Bushroot, "Spike get them now!"

**[A fight with Spike occurs here. He's not too tough he's got a good bit of health and mainly tries to bite you a lot. All boss fights will be detailed in the Appendix section]**

The dog-like Venus flytrap thing charged at Sora and he was barely able to get his key-blade up in time. The thing had large jaws and sharp teeth and tried it's best to bite Sora. But Sora managed to ward off most of it's blows and forced the creature back. Goofy aimed his shield perfectly and was able to throw it into the creatures mouth wedging it's jaws open as the thing struggled to spit out the shield.

"My spike!" cried Bushroot, "what have you done to my poor pet you fiend!"

"Hey you're the one who set him on us," retorted Sora, "I was just defending myself."

"Well you were the one spying on me again," countered Bushroot.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sora, "I've never been here before."

"What? Yes you have," said Bushroot, "the last time you were here you were wearing a black cloak but I'm certain you're the same person."

"Black cloak?" chimed in Donald

"But a black cloak means Organization XIII," added Goofy

"Enough," yelled Megavolt waving his arms and interrupting everyone, "Let's get a few things straight here." He turned to look at Sora, "first of all were you the one who Bushroot caught spying on him a few weeks ago?"

"No I wasn't," said Sora defensively.

"Yeah I thought not," added Megavolt, "I only glimpsed you for a bit but even I'm sure you're not the same person. You look like him but not quite I can't describe it but there is something different about you. Okay then next question if you're not that same person who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Sora," said Sora.

"Donald Duck," said Donald.

"And I'm Goofy," finished Goofy.

"We're here to stop the heartless," continued Sora

"The what?" asked Megavolt

"The heartless," said Sora, "that thing you were examining over there." He pointed to where Bushroot was keeping the new heatless specimen.

"So," said Bushroot in an oily voice, "You know about these things."

"Yes I do," said Sora, now taking a more confrontational tone, "So what are you guys doing with this one."

"Well if you already know a bit about them," said Megavolt, "maybe you could save us the trouble. We're trying to learn more about them and we want to able to control them as minions."

"That's a very bad idea." Said Sora, "the heartless are uncontrollable. A lot of different people have tried and failed to get them to do their bidding. You should stop this idea right now."

"You wanna stop us?" taunted Megavolt, "It's not happening I know that I've managed to get these things to follow my orders on at least one occasion and I think that's only the beginning of what I can do with them."

"Please listen to me," said Sora, "If you intend to keep doing this then it's our duty to stop you. You're messing with forces you could never understand. The heartless may follow your orders in the beginning but after awhile they'll devour your heart and turn you into one of them."

"You do seem to know a lot about these heartless," said Megavolt. It could not be clearer that the tone had changed and Sora and Co, were almost certain that a confrontation was inevitable. "In that case if you won't tell us willingly we'll make you tell us." He charged up his hands with electricity in a threatening manner.

"I'm not afraid of you," bellowed Sora confidently as he got his key-blade ready. Donald and Goofy came to his side to show their support too.

"Yeah," said Donald, "he's the key-blade master and we're here to back him up."

"You betcha," agreed Goofy, "Sora can always count on us."

Megavolt was about to say something else when suddenly the heartless Bushroot had been examining suddenly disappeared and reappeared in front of him. Not only that but several more heartless had appeared and begun to surround Sora. It was almost as if they sensed Megavolt's intentions and knew what he wanted to do.

"Well this is a nice surprise," wheezed Megavolt, "I think I'm finally beginning to see how this works. Alright then heartless beasts get the kid!"

**[Information: Defeat all the Heartless]**

The battle began and Sora was soon up to his ears in heartless. The new moth type heartless buzzed overhead just out of reach so he had to leap up to attack them. As if that weren't enough they also began shooting out electric beams at him. Goofy stepped in and raised his shield to block a few of the shots from hitting Sora. Donald at first tried fighting fire with fire by summoning up some thunder. Unfortunately the targets were not affected by the attack.

"Wak it's not working," cried out Donald, "Those things are immune to lighting."

"Dually noted," said Sora, "so I guess that means it's down to brute force."

The brawl went on for a bit longer. Sora had become so used to this by now that it was not long before he had finally knocked the last flying heartless out of the sky.

* * *

><p>"Well that takes care of that," he remarked, but he noticed something was wrong. In the confusion of the fighting Bushroot and Megavolt had gotten away.<p>

"Wak where did those two go to?" queried Donald.

"Garsh they musta slipped away during the fighting," replied Goofy

"We gotta find them," said Sora, "no telling what those two could do with the heartless under their command."

"Let's get going then," snapped Goofy.

The trio rushed outside the greenhouse, in search of the escaped villains, but were quickly overwhelmed when they encountered yet more heartless.

"Looks like we're not done yet," said Sora flashing his key-blade into life again.

Once again the heroes charged into battle and began an assault on the new wave of heartless. This time the flying bugs had been joined by some familiar flower shaped heartless that grew out of the ground and began shooting seeds at the gang. Donald was quick to deal with these threats by summoning fire to burn them up.

"There sure are a lot," mussed Sora, "I hope we can handle them all."

As if in answer to his mussing he suddenly heard a voice call out as if from nowhere. The voice was loud and theatric. Sora looked around but was unable to find a source for the voice anywhere, that's when he heard it speak.

"I am the terror, that flaps in the night, I am the broken heart that you can't fix."

That was when Sora noticed something else. A large puff of smoke had appeared in the middle of him and all the heartless they were fighting. It started as no more than a cloud and without warning began to grow larger. It was from the depths of this smoke cloud that emerged the source of the voice. It was a duck similar in size and shape to Donald, however this duck was clad in contrasting shades of purple with a cape on his back. It was apparent that he was the voice Sora had heard earlier.

"I am Darkwing Duck," said the Duck introducing himself as the smoke cleared.

"Who are you?" asked Sora.

"Didn't you hear me 5 seconds ago?" asked the Duck, "I'm Darkwing Duck, fearsome crime fighter extordinare, caped crusader of justice, daring denizen of the dark. Haven't you heard of me citizen?"

"Uh can't say I have," responded Sora,

"WHAT?" yelled Darkwing incensed, "I really need to hire a publicist."

"Yeah well worry about that later," said Donald running to join the two.

"We still have heartless to take care," continued Goofy.

Aided by their new ally the combatants redoubled their efforts against the enemy. The key-blade danced through the air as it struck down heartless after heartless. Banishing it's enemies to the void. Their new friend seemed quite adept at physical combat, he easily used his hands and feet to dispatch foes. Occasionally Sora also thought he saw him pull out some type of gun and dispatch the heartless with that. With the help of their new comrade it wasn't long before the area had been cleared of heartless.

"So you said your name is Darkwing Duck?" asked Sora

"That's right," said Darkwing, "I am the terror that flaps in the night and protector of the city of St. Canard. So who are you three?"

"I'm Sora," he answered, "And this is Donald and Goofy" he indicated his companions.

"Those creatures," began Darkwing, "You called them heartless? So that's what they're called?"

"Yes," said Sora, "We're here to take care of them. Not only that but we saw these other two guys trying to learn more about them. I think they were called Megavolt and Bushroot."

Darkwing's eye's light up at the sound of those names but it also seemed as though he knew this meant even more trouble. "Bushroot and Megavolt are two of the most notorious crooks in St. Canard. I've tangled with both of them on several occasions but this is the first time they've ever teamed up. And now they're trying to develop some new minions to follow their orders. This is big! A bust like this could finally give me the notoriety I deserve."

Suddenly he puffed his chest out importantly and stood as though he were posing for a statue. "The good citizens of St. Canard need not fear as I…Darkwing Duck!...cunningly conspire to capture and incarcerate these colossal criminals quickly and confidently.

**[Try saying that 5 times fast. Took me awhile to come up with it]**

"Uhh but they escaped," noted Sora.

The wind seemed to have fallen out of Darkwing's sail as he instantly snapped back to reality.

"I know they escaped," he whined, "in fact I was prepared for that option but don't worry my sidekick is busy tracking them down as we speak."

It was just at that moment when a purple motorcycle matching the color of Darkwing's costume pulled up to where they were standing. Another duck got off it and approached the group. He was much taller than Darkwing and a bit more muscular too, yet he had a very weird look on his face that suggested he was a simple person.

"Hey bad news DW," said the duck, "I lost Bushroot and Megavolt they got away and I don't know where they went." He paused a bit as he noticed Sora and Co. "Who are your new friends?"

"Oh uh this is Sara," said Darkwing

"Sora!" corrected Sora

"Whatever," said Darkwing, "look Sora was it? Thanks for your help with those monsters but I think I can take it from here. You see Lauchpad and I have been taking care of this city for awhile now we handle what the police can't. So you can just return to your normal life and leave the crime fighting to us."

"But wait a bit," said Sora, "We can help you, these heartless aren't like normal enemies you need my help. The key-blade is especially good against them."

"The what?" asked Darkwing

"The key-blade," responded Sora, holding up his hand and summoning the weapon.

"Oh that's the thing you were using to fight," observed Darkwing, "it looks like a giant key. But it's not like it can actually open doors right?"

"Actually it can," supplied Sora, "It can open any locked door and also seal a door so it can never be opened."

"What?" exclaimed Darkwing slightly concerned, "You mean that thing can open any locked door? That sounds like the tool of a thief!"

"Hey come on now," interjected Donald, "we just helped you defeat the heartless."

"Yeah I'm no thief!" said Sora

"Well thief or not," finished Darkwing, "I'll be watching you so don't think you can try anything funny when Darkwing Duck is around! Now like I said thanks for your information so far but LP and I can handle this fine from here on out."

With that Darkwing mounted his motorcycle and motioned for the other duck to join him.

"My name's Launchpad, by the way," said the other duck, "Don't worry to much about DW I'm sure he means well. He just doesn't want you to get hurt. But we'll do our best to take care of those villains." With that he seated himself in the side-car and the engine roared to life. Darkwing vanished into the night leaving the key-blade heroes to wonder at what to do next.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in another part of town, Megavolt and Bushroot had retreated to a secret location, They began discussing the next phase of their plan.<p>

"We sure were lucky to get away from that spy," began Bushroot, "and even luckier that Darkwing Duck didn't catch us."

"Aww it won't matter in awhile anyway," wheezed Megavolt, "I think I'm starting to see how we can use these heartless to our advantage. It seems that they feed off negative emotions. The more anger and hate you have the better you can control them. Also they require only simple commands and can read your thoughts so all you have to do is think about what you want them to do and they'll do it. And finally the best thing is that you can control what form they'll take."

"How'd you figure out all that so quickly?" asked Bushroot.

"I don't know it just came to me," replied Megavolt, "It happened when I was able to involuntary summon those heartless to help us get away and attack that Sora guy."

"What you suddenly came to a great realization?" asked Bushroot

"If you don't believe me," began Megavolt, "watch I'll show you. Now close your eyes and concentrate. Just imagine that the heartless you want are right there in front of you."

Bushroot closed his eyes and imagined for a few minutes. Suddenly when he opened his eyes he saw several small black insect like creatures standing before him. They had small antenna on their heads and large bulbous yellow eyes.

"Well that's interesting," observed Bushroot, "now what?"

"Give them an order with your mind," demanded Megavolt.

Bushroot asked them in his head to run in a circle around him, then jump in place. It seemed that they did indeed obey all his orders.

"Well that's not bad," he said, "but it sure would be nice if they looked like plants."

No sooner had he said it then suddenly, the small black creatures vanished and were replaced by large flower. The flowers were large and intimidating, they spat seeds and could shoot vines through the ground to hit far targets.

"Oh now this I really like," said Bushroot. "I could get used to this. I see what you mean Megavolt. Now that we have a new army of minions it's time to turn the tables on Darkwing."


	4. Chapter 3

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

_Well seeing as I'm once again single on Valentines, I have plenty of time to work on my fan-fiction. You know I've never had a girlfriend on Valentines Day so it's never really been a holiday for me. Maybe someday I will… But all that's in the future so here to you my readers is the next chapter._

**Chapter 3**

Sora continued to watch the ever fading trail of Darkwing Duck on his motor-cycle as he sped off into the darkness. It wasn't long before the image faded completely and was no longer visible. Sora turned to his companions, "Well guys what do you think we should do?"

"That Darkwing guy sounds like a bit of a show-off to me," responded Donald, "I don't think he really understands what he's getting himself into."

"Garsh, I don't know," said Goofy, "he looks like a hero to me."

"Maybe he is," suggested Sora, "but even so if there are heartless in this world that means that we have to do something about it with or without Darkwing's help."

"But I'll bet he knows this world pretty well," supplied Goofy, "It would make sense to have him as an ally."

"I guess you're right," said Sora, "Let's follow him and see if we can find him."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in a secret location Megavolt and Bushroot had fled from Sora and Darkwing and began making machinations of their own.<p>

"We need some sort of plan now Bushy," he began, "It's bad enough that we got that kid after us but now Darkwing Dip is after us too."

"Ahh neither of them are a concern," replied Bushroot, "now that we both know how to control the heartless we can wipe the floor with them.

"Maybe so," said Megavolt, "but it certainly would make things easier if we could turn them against each other and not have to worry about them at all."

"Hmmm," thought Bushroot, "divide and conquer is a nice strategy but I don't think it will work. Or better yet how do we make it work?"

"That's why I'm the brains of this operation Lettuce head," supplied Megavolt, "I happen to have the perfect plan and we don't even really have to turn the two against each other per se."

"Oh," said Bushroot, "Then what do we need to do?"

"We just need to bruise Drakwing's ego a bit," answered Megavolt, "Darkwing likes to believe that he's number one and doesn't need anyone else to help him, so all we have to do is make the kid look better than him and things will be fine."

"And how do we do that?" asked Bushroot

"Let's seek out the kid and fight him a bit," said Megavolt, "then when Darkwing Dork shows up we look like were losing and get him annoyed. I guarantee within know time at all we'll have Darkwing focused on the kid instead of us."

"So what happens after that?" asked Bushroot

"After that we take over St. Canard," cackled Megavolt, he began rubbing his hands together and electricity sparked between them

Sora and Co., had wandered away from the greenhouse and were exploring the dark streets of Saint Canard. They had long since lost track of Darkwing but decided to follow in the hopes that he would show himself again. It wasn't long before they encountered more heartless some familiar and some new.

"It looks like those two guys we saw earlier have figured out how to control the heartless," observed Goofy as he smashed into a pair of them.

"Just our luck eh?" replied Sora as he slid forward into a group of them,

"It seems like I always get stuck with all the bad luck," quacked Donald as he summoned some lighting to get rid of some more.

"Less talking more fighting," commanded Sora

With their usual precision the trio quickly dispatched the heartless and were once again on their way. They continued along the dimly lit and deserted streets for what seemed like ages before a loud alarm guided them towards its source. They arrived in front of what was clearly a bank; in front of the entrance was quite a number of flower heartless.

**[Sorry can't remember what they're called but you know the ones I'm talking about. They appear in Wonderland in CoM]**

"They're trying to keep us out," yelled Donald as he barely avoided being attacked by one of their long reaching roots.

Sora ran forward to get in close but was stopped short as he was hit by a barrage of seeds that sent him spinning back. He tried to recover In the air but as he charged forward again he received another blast in the face from the spitting flowers.

Goofy tried blocking the attacks with his shield but that tactic only worked for so long as a creeping root sprung out at him sending him jumping in pain.

Donald and Sora had enveloped themselves in fire and were wading through the flowers trying to burn them. This seemed to be working but it seemed as quickly as the burned a few of them more sprung up to take their place.

"I think we're gonna need help here," observed Sora and I know just who could help us. Sora steadied himself and concentrated with all his might as he gripped the lamp charm. "Genie!" he shouted after awhile. The effect was instantaneous suddenly the large blue figure of the genie appeared in front of him and he was ready for battle. Transforming into valor mode Sora and the genie used their combined power to inflict massive damage upon the plant creatures. A few rounds of their "valor" attack and Sora managed to get rid of all the annoying flower heartless.

"Tootaloo," said genie as he vanished.

"Nice work Sora," said Goofy, "now let's see what caused the alarm to go off." Goofy took the lead as the trio entered the front door of the bank. Someone was already coming out and as soon as he stepped into the light it was clear who it was.

"Bushroot," said all three together.

"What ? ahh Why? How? What are you guys doing here?" he stammered.

"We could ask you the same question" said Sora smugly.

"I have some banking to take care of," said Bushroot, "now if you'll excuse me I must be off."

Before he could go anywhere a familiar voice was heard as if coming out of nowhere.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night; I am the fire that burns down your bush."

Suddenly a familiar cloud of smoke appeared and from within its depths emerged not one but two figures. Darkwing Duck and his sidekick Launchpad.

"Oh of course you'd be here too," groaned Bushroot but suddenly an idea came to him, and he decided to implement it then and there. "But it's not like I'm afraid of you Darkwing Duck, in fact I believe you're late to the party. Why Sora here was first I think he'd make a better defender of this city than you."

Darkwing had not noticed Sora but upon hearing Bushroot's words he turned his head to face him.

"You!" he snapped, "didn't I tell you to stay out of this, I'm the crime fighter here not you."

"I'm not trying to replace you," said Sora defensively, "I just want to help you why can't we work together."

"Because," began Darkwing, "The deft defender of the dark does not and despises doing double duty with a wanna be do-gooder."

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy who both looked confused.

"Uhh could you repeat that?" asked Sora

Darkwing fell from his triumphant pose onto the ground in a state of disbelief.

"The point is," he began staring straight at Sora, "that I am the hero and savior of St. Canard and you are just an interloper trying to get in the way. Besides I never asked for your help and even if I did (which I won't) I should still be the one calling the shots here."

"I guess I never thought of it that way," admitted Sora, "Most of the places we go to need our help in some way or another and we're only too happy to give it. I'm sorry if we got in your way, but we still have a job to do and I think you need our help."

"Well I'm still not sure if I want your help, but I've agreed for now that we may as well work together to stop that-," began Darkwing

"Uhh 'scuse me for interrupting," said Launchpad, "but Bushroot is getting away."

The gang turned just in time to see the vegetable duck escape down a dark deserted alley.

"After him," called Darkwing, everyone rushed after him. "We've got him trapped, there's no way out from there."

All five heroes peeked their heads around the alley wall, and were greeted by the sight of Bushroot flying away. He was holding onto what looked like two large flowers except the petals were revolving like helicopter blades they were spinning around very fast and lifting the villain farther away.

"Ta-ta, Darkwing Ducky," he called as he soared away into the dark.

"Drat's," said Darkwing throwing his hat on the ground. "He got away."

"I guess it's our own fault," said Sora, "We shouldn't have wasted time arguing,"

"No we shouldn't have," agreed Darkwing, "and I suppose I have been a bit hard on you guys. I mean you only wanted to help me and if we had worked together we probably could have captured Bushroot by now. So this means that now we have to start working together and I know the perfect place to start."

"Where would that be?" asked Sora

"Follow me I'm going to lead you to my secret lair," replied DW

**[Darkwing Duck has been switched into your party]**

The gang proceeded to follow DW for what appeared a long time, finally they made it back to the large bridge where Sora and Co. had first entered the world.

"Garsh is this bridge your secret lair?" queried Goofy

"No, it's only the entrance to my lair," replied DW, "See the top posts on the bridge? Near the bottom there's a secret entrance that leads right to my lair follow me."

Darkwing lead them to the base of one of the large central pillars that held the suspension bridge. After locating a secret entrance at the base the team saw a spiral stair case that lead into a large interesting room. It was incredibly tall with only one window at the top. It had all sorts of weird and scientific devices. Most noticeable was a large platform in the center that held some sort of computer mainframe in it. Next to that computer was a large filing case, and next to that was another room but Sora couldn't quite see into it to determine what it's function was.

"Welcome citizens to my secret crime-fighting lair," bellowed Darkwing.

"Wow this place is awesome!" exclaimed Donald

"Garsh it looks real fancy," said Goofy

"This place is cool," said Sora.

"Well there's no time to lollygag, said Darkwing, "we don't have much time but we need to learn how to work together if we're going to stop both Megavolt and Bushroot." Darkwing hurried over to his filing cabinet and accessed a new file from the bottom shelf. "I've got files on the most wanted criminals in St. Canard, but it looks like I'll need a new one for these heartless species. So why don't you sit down and tell me about them."

Sora ran through as much as he knew about the heartless and watched as Darkwing took careful and calculated notes about everything Sora said. It wasn't long before the file he had been working on had reached a considerable size. Finally after Sora had mentioned everything worth mentioning they stopped.

"Well this has been informative," said Darkwing as their interview concluded, "thanks to this information I'm one step closer in my fight against the heartless."

"So what's next?" asked Sora

"Next," answered Darkwing, "who's hungry for breakfast?"

Sora was a little stunned by this question, but decided to play along for now.

"I guess I'm hungry," he replied

"Good now if you'll follow me," said Darkwing

Darkwing lead Sora up to the room that was next to the filing cabinet. From below Sora had been unable to determine what the room was or what it's possible purpose could be. Now that he saw it up close it looked like a standard kitchen with checkered tile. Although there was something strange about the room Sora couldn't exactly guess what that might be. He did however notice that it was a bit larger than a standard kitchen.

"The most important meal of the day is breakfast," explained Darkwing, "For crime-fighting it's even more important and not just as the start of the day, but also as a form of training. Now as you might have guessed this is not an ordinary kitchen so please stand back and watch me."

Sora watched as Darkwing walked over to the table that was in the room he noticed it had a small stopwatch on it. He barely noticed that Darkwing had pushed the button before several things happened at once.

First Darkwing jumped into the air as a plate and silverware were tossed at him. He managed to grab the utensils in his hand and the plate with his mouth. He quickly returned them to the table. Next he grabbed a bowl and rushed across the room as a gun began shooting cereal at him; fortunately he was able to catch all the cereal not missing a drop. He put the bowl of cereal on the table with the plate and silverware. Then he ran to grab an iron pan just in the nick of time, he turned around just as two eggs shot out from the fridge. Darkwing positioned the pan so that both eggs hit the pan and were ready to be cooked. Unfortunately he had miscalculated and almost realized his mistake too late as a floor panel opened beneath him. He was just able to jump out of the way as searing hot flames spat out from the ground. The flames hit the pan and began to cook the eggs instead of him. Darkwing grabbed the pan failing to realize it was hot. He quickly threw the pan away and luckily managed to fling the eggs onto the prepared plate on the table. He barely had time to recover as two pieces of toast shot out of the toaster at him, but he was prepared and shot out two small squares of butter that hit the toast mid-flight and changed it's trajectory back towards the table. He threw a small plate for toast at the table and managed to catch the bread just in time. A small canon sprung out of the wall behind him and fired a large grapefruit at Darkwing, with a well placed kick he split the grapefruit in half and sent it towards the table where it joined the rest of breakfast. Finally a small catapult launched three oranges at him, but once again Darkwing was ready he jumped up to grab all three and squeezed them together so their juice fell into a glass on the table. Sitting down in his chair he stopped the stopwatch admiring his time.

"Not bad at all," he remarked, "and we have everything a champion needs for a good breakfast…..except the milk."

As he realized there was no milk the fridge behind him suddenly shot up in the air, Sora was certain that the large fridge would smash the hero. At the last second however Darkwing sprung out of his chair the fridge landed harmlessly beside the table and an actuator holding a pitcher of milk came out of the fridge and poured a generous serving into the cereal.

"That used to surprise me," admitted the caped crusader, "but enough practice and even I remember everything. You know I built and designed this training course myself. It took me awhile to even get past the plates so let's see how fast you do Sora."

**[This is a mini-game that I'll expound upon in the appendix section. Basically it's a test of how fast your reaction skills are, as the game is a whole big set of reaction commands one after another. You still have to move to the right location but it's all about keeping the rhythm going with reaction commands. Good Luck!]**

Sora stepped up to the start button, and stretched his arms and legs. When he finally felt he was ready he pressed the button and was off. In no time at all he had zoomed through the obstacle course and was sitting eating his well earned breakfast.

Darkwing starred in disbelief at his time, "Wow I got to admit that's pretty good, I mean it's still not really in my league but with a little practice you'll get there-

"Hang on a second DW," called Launchpad, "I think Sora here beat your record."

Darkwing took another look at the stopwatch and was surprised to find that Launchpad was indeed right.

"Well you're off to a great start," he said grudgingly. "But now let's work on your form."

Darkwing lead Sora and Co. downstairs to where there was a large training mat that looked like it was used for sparring.

"I want to see just how good you are," said Darkwing, "I have of coursed mastered many multiplications of multiple melees as well as mixed martial arts. So let's see what you and that key can do against me."

Sora and Darkwing stepped into the ring and got ready for a little sparring match. Sora watched as Darkwing loosed up and stretched. Sora practiced swinging his key-blade about and finally got ready in a fighting stance.

"Let's begin," said Darkwing

**[Another mini-game you can practice fighting Darkwing here just for fun really. Not much else to say. Of course I will detail it more in the Appendix]**

Sora expected Darkwing to charge at him and was therefore surprised when he wrapped himself up in his cape and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sora began searching all over for him but couldn't find him anywhere.

"First round and already your lost?" taunted Darkwing's voice. Sora looked up at the ceiling but still found nothing. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to catch me," said the voice.

Sora noticed only too late as he suddenly felt pain in his back; he was flying forward into the ropes. When he looked back he saw Darkwing had somehow appeared behind him and kicked him. Sora turned and summoned his key-blade and charged straight for Darkwing. They began to exchange blows as Darkwing effortlessly warded off Sora's swings. He was only using his arms but it seemed like all he needed.

"Too slow," criticized Darkwing, "you'll never land a blow if that's as fast as you can move. You need to use your mind as well as your muscles."

Sora swung once more but this time was tripped and fell to the ground. Darkwing had once again disappeared.

"Now come on," taunted the voice again, "Don't use your eyes use your other senses, and figure out where I will appear."

Sora heard it this time, what sounded like a soft hiss and quickly turned to smoke, it had started subtly behind him. But this time he was ready and jumped to avoid Darkwing's kick.

"Very good," observed Darkwing, "but what about when the whole advantage is mine?"

Without another word he pulled out his gas gun and in an instant had sprayed thick dark clouds of gas over the whole arena. Sora looked around but might as well have had his eyes closed as he couldn't see a thing. The smoke was stinging his eyes and made him cough and sneeze to breathe it. He simply stood still and it wasn't long before he paid the price. In quick succession he felt a blow to his face then his feet were once again tripped and finally a blow at his stomach. As he looked up from the floor he thought he could see the faintest of Darkwing Duck outlines. He tried to get up but realized that Darkwing was pinning him down with his foot.

"You haven't impressed me yet key-blade master," said Darkwing, "it took me years of training before I was ready to don the mantle of the terror that flaps in the night. Who gave you the title of key-blade master? You know what this is? It's all just smoke and mirrors you have to make your opponents think your stronger than you really are. All I've done is some cheap theatrics and already I have you on the ropes. The fight isn't over though show me you still have some spirit."

Sora raised his key-blade to the air and shouted, "Thunder," in the blink of an eye a small thunderbolt came out of the sky and hit Darkwing dead center, The shock was enough to cause him to move out of the way, and Sora used the opportunity to get up. His expression changed and he was now battle ready and confident. He let loose with a flurry of blows at Darkwing, the caped duck tried his best to block them but eventually Sora scored a hit and then another and then another. Soon Darkwing was caught in a barrage of blows that he was unable to escape.

"It's over," proclaimed Sora as he unleashed the Explosion finishing move on Darkwing. The balls of energy sent him up in the air where Sora continued his assault on the duck before unleashing his aril finishing move on him, "Back off," commanded Sora as he caught Darkwing in his aril assault."

As they fell to the ground Darkwing called at Sora.

"Well done, we can stop now I knew you had it in you," said Darkwing, "you truly have the heart and courage of a warrior and now I know that together we can stop whatever Bushroot and Megavolt have planned…..but first I think I need a little rest, that battle really wore me out." Said Darkwing as he collapsed into a chair, "the rest of you take five too okay."

"Ok perfect," said Launchpad, "hey Sora that'll give me just enough time to whip up a batch of my famous fudge brownies. Hey DW do you want any?"

But the only sound that came back was the sound of heavy snoring. Sora, Launchpad, and the others chuckled.


	5. Chapter 4

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

**Chapter 4**

Saint Canard held many secrets. The average citizen knew very few of these and lived, for the most part ignorant of anything spectacular. Even though there was a caped crusader who devoted his life to protecting them. Few could ever recall his name, and fewer still would ever acknowledge that such a person even existed. More spectacular than the hero were his villains, these characters wandered the streets of St. Canard causing mayhem and mischief. In fact several of their escapades had attracted the public eye on more than one occasion. Yet always it seemed there was the aforementioned caped crusader who swooped in to save the day from these denizens of the dark. He devoted his life to saving people even though the vast majority of the public would never know who he was.

At the current moment two of the city's most notorious criminals were discussing their plans in a secret hideout.

"So what's the plan Megavolt?" asked Bushroot.

"Quiet you," snapped Megavolt. "I'm experimenting with something." He was in fact shooting electricity at a small flower-like heartless observing how the thing reacted. After awhile however the heartless exploded and vanished into nothingness.

"Darn-it," exclaimed Megavolt, "that didn't work. Bushroot summon me another one of those heartless."

"What are you trying to accomplish?" asked Bushroot, "I can't count how many heartless you've destroyed with this silly experiment."

"Well it doesn't matter since we have unlimited supplies of these things," answered Megavolt, "and that's the problem. These things might be unlimited but they're weak. I'm trying to charge them up with electricity to make them more powerful. If we could make them more powerful we could control all of St. Canard."

"Well I hope you can figure it out soon Sparky," retorted Bushroot, "I say we should try giving them fertilizer and see what happens." He concentrated and summoned another flower heartless into their midst.

Megavolt began charging up to shoot electricity. This time he dramatically slowed the stream of power so that the wave of lighting flowed slowly and evenly into the being. After several failed attempts Megavolt had realized that the best method was to slowly allow the power to enter the creature so it wouldn't harm it. After awhile there was a noticeable difference in size of the flower heartless and it looked to double in size.

"It's working," exclaimed Megavolt.

"Hey not bad," agreed Bushroot, "Who'd of thought one of your crazy ideas would actually work."

"My ideas aren't crazy," screamed Megavolt. "They're just unconventional."

"Ok you're a genius," admitted Bushroot, _Though not as much of a genius as me_

"But to get enough power to make this work we're gonna need to make a trip to the local power plant." Said Megavolt

"It's going to take time to make that creature grow," supplied Bushroot, "We need to find a way to keep Darkwing Duck out of our hair until its ready."

"That will be your job," said Megavolt.

"Wh-wh-what," stammered Bushroot, "Why do I have to be the one distracting him?"

"Because I'm the genius remember fertilizer breath," retorted Megavolt, "If you want me to help you grow a bride you'll do this."

_The crazy things we do for love_, thought Bushroot. "Okay fine, I hope that Darkwing doesn't figure out our plan before it's too late." _I also hope that other guy with the key isn't with him._

"First we'll go to the power plant," said Megavolt, "Once I hook our little fellow here up to the power and start giving him the juice you go out and cause some mayhem to get Darkwing Dufus's attention. Give me some time and then lead him here to the plant and we'll unleash the big guy on him."

"I sure hope this works," said Bushroot.

* * *

><p>Darkwing Duck had fallen asleep on his chair in his hideout. He was very tired and couldn't remember all of what had recently happened. He likely would have stayed asleep even longer had not the smell of something delicious woke him up.<p>

"What is that deliciously, divine, deluxe, aroma drifting daintily towards me?" asked Darkwing.

"Oh hey DW, good to see you awake," responded Launchpad, "I was just whipping up a batch of my famous fudge brownies."

` "Oh so that was the intoxicating smell I detected, I guess I could have a taste," said Darkwing.

"Hey how are you feeling Darkwing," asked Sora, "I hope your okay."

"Oh I'm just fine, don't worry about me Sora," answered Darkwing, "Us heroes just need a good power nap and then we're back in the game. Speaking of which let's not waste too much time chowing down brownies. Bushroot and Megavolt are still out there and they have a dangerous new ally."

"Right DW," said Launchpad, "Sora, Donald, Goofy, are you ready to get back out there?"

"We are," the trio responded.

"Now that Sora has shared his information about the heartless," began Darkwing, "and I've given Sora a crash course of hero training we should be good to go."

"I would assume that since you know this area and those villains pretty well that you have an idea of where they are and what they're doing," said Sora.

Darkwing stood triumphant and raised his hand in the air. "Of course I…..don't." His arm fell down, Sora looked downtrodden.

Darkwing recovered, "But don't worry, I'm one of the greatest detectives ever. If anyone can find those felonious fiends it's me."

"So what do you recommend we do?" asked Sora

"We've got to think like they think," answered Darkwing, "we've got to be tough, unpredictable, tenacious, and maybe a little bit crazy. Now let's see…..Bushroot and Megavolt have just gotten their hands on a new ally that practically does anything they want. I'll bet that their out there right now testing it out trying to see how well they can control it. They think they have the city all to themselves but they've forgotten about St. Canard's dedicated, dutiful, defender of the dark….Darkwing Duck."

"So what do we do?" asked Sora.

"We get back out in St. Canard and find those villains," said Darkwing, "Come on LP, Sora, Donald, and Goofy…Let's get dangerous!"

* * *

><p>The heroes had left the bridge hide-out and wandered back onto the streets of St. Canard. The night was clear as the full moon shown down to light the streets. Darkwing was leading the group using his trusty magnifying glass to search the ground for clues.<p>

"If my instincts are correct," he began, "we should be able to pick up the trail of either that elastic, eccentric, egotistical, electrical evildoer Megavolt, or that lyceum lycantipus Bushroot. At least one or both of those crooks must be out causing trouble and my keen, conniving, conceptual senses will help us pick up their trail. But we should all keep our eyes peeled for any signs of mischief."

"You mean like that one DW?" asked Launchpad. He pointed off in the distance where a store-front window had clearly been smashed.

"Exactly like that," said Darkwing, "let's have a closer look."

The heroes moved closer until they could clearly see the scene of the crime. They spotted a jewelry store with its front window bashed open. Inside there was a clear display of destruction. Most of the display cases had been smashed open. Glass was everywhere and a few pieces of jewelry were scattered here and there.

"I think it's fair to say that someone did some after hours shopping here," began Darkwing, "but the question is who?"

Before that question could be answered several heartless materialized all over the store surrounding the warriors.

"Heartless" said Sora, Donald, and Goofy in unison

"Time to show them who I am," said Darkwing as he charged into battle

Sora materialized his key-blade and went to work dealing with the heartless. Darkwing and pulled out his gas gun and was spraying a thick black smoke into the air that caused some of the heartless to fall asleep. He began jumping and flipping out of harm's way as he avoided heartless attacks as he countered their strikes with his own punches and kicks.

More heartless appeared this time they were the plant ones that sprang up out of ground. Donald cast a ring of fire around himself to try and burn the heartless. Sora did likewise. Goofy entered into his tornado mode and span around bouncing off the heartless like a pinball. Darkwing was squaring off against a large body. He punched hard into the stomach only to realize to late that it didn't work. His punch was reflected off the belly and sent the hero flying back. Darkwing recovered and pulled out his gas gun expelling a puff of smoke before vanishing into thin air. A second later he had reappeared behind the large body and began delivering a series of punches and kicks at it. The large body quickly countered by spinning around and striking Darkwing sending him flying back. Darkwing flipped in mid-air so his feet landed against the wall. He used the momentum of the hit to spring himself off the wall and back towards the heartless, right before he made contact he sprayed gas all around him disappearing and once again appearing behind the large body. He delivered a swift kick to its back of it and it was instantly destroyed.

Sora was busy with his own group of heartless. The flower heartless had surrounded him and were shooting their roots underground to attack him. Sora dodged one pair of roots only to be caught by another. He tried jumping out of the way but the flowers shot seeds into the air hitting him and causing him to fall. He was battered and bruised and desperately in need of healing, luckily Donald noticed the war weary warrior just in time.

"Sora," cried out Donald as he raised his staff in the air and released a Cure spell to help revive Sora.

The energy flowed through Sora as he felt himself healed. With a new resolve he rushed at the heartless covering himself in a ring of flames. As he made contact with the flower it erupted into flames. He dashed towards another and achieved the same result. Finally he sprinted at the last flower and set it ablaze. The three flowers withered and exploded as the last bits of fire burned out. With them gone the last of the heartless were defeated.

"Whew that was close," sighed Goofy, "looks like we got them all."

"Once again Darkwing Duck emerges singed but triumphant," exclaimed the caped crusader.

"This looks like it might have been a trap," said Launchpad.

"It was a trap!" said Darkwing, "which means one of those villains was definitely here. Also it was probably the same person who robbed this jewelry store in the first place, but who was it?" Darkwing took out his magnifying glass and scanned the ground looking for any type of clue. After awhile his eyes were finally drawn to a patch on the ground.

"Pollen," observed Darkwing, "that means that it's Bushroot we're after. That villainous vine is ahead of us and we have to catch up! Come on guys….let's get dangerous!"

* * *

><p>The heroes were off again on the trail as Darkwing lead the way using his magnifying glass to follow the trail of pollen. It was spread all over the street and very hard to see but Darkwing's keen eyes continued to follow the trail. It wasn't long before the group arrived at a bank, and from the looks of it, someone had recently robbed this one too. The gang stepped cautiously into the ruin and looked around to see if there was anyone still there, but before they could determine that heartless had sprung up entrapping them again.<p>

"Not again," sighed a frustrated Sora as he raised his key-blade.

"Let's get them," said Donald as he called down thunder to hit a group of heartless.

The battle progressed as magic flashed around the room from both Sora and Donald. Goofy spun around like a top bouncing off heartless everywhere. Darkwing threw sleeping gas at his foes immobilizing them and then going in for the finishing move. Before long the battle was won and the heroes stood victorious.

"Looks like we walked into another trap," observed Launchpad

"Maybe LP," agreed Darkwing, "but I think we're also hot on the trail of that felonious fertilizing flower brain. If he's leaving traps for us we must be closing in." He pulled out his magnifying glass again and focused it at the ground. "It seems the trail is getting stronger. Let's keep going!"

Again the group followed the trail with Darkwing expertly leading the way. The trail was defiantly growing stronger and before long they found themselves in front of…

"Megavolt's hideout!" exclaimed Darkwing, "I'll bet that walking vegetable needs to drop off his stolen goods."

The gang was looking up at a large lighthouse. The light was on inside and was rotating casting a shadow on something that looked like a walking vegetable.

"Bushroot's inside," exclaimed Darkwing, "Let's go in after him before he gets away!"

The five heroes rushed inside and up a flight of stairs encountering Bushroot just as he was about to flee.

"Wha wha," he stammered, "You again! Why can't you guys leave me alone?"

"Justice never leaves criminals alone Bushroot," said Darkwing, "Now tell us where Megavolt is."

"How about I introduce you to some of my favorite plants instead?" suggested Bushroot. He snapped his fingers and suddenly more of the flower heartless appeared instantly. There was also a new type of heartless. This one looked like a walking Venus flytrap; it had a large mouth with two vines on the side to capture and restrain prey. They began heading towards Sora and Co.

"How do you like my new pets?" asked Bushroot, "I modeled them after my pet Spike." Spike suddenly appeared from behind Bushroot and took a bow as if he were a great actor. "Speaking of which Spike get them!"

Bushroot elongated his arm making into a rope. He lumped out the window using his now rope arm to climb down.

"Let's take care of these guys first," said Sora, "then we'll go after Bushroot."

Spike lead the other heartless in a charge against Sora and his allies. Spike himself began chomping and biting at Sora. The other heartless were busy with the other fighters. Sora faced off against Spike and began swinging and striking the walking plant. Spike tried to trap Sora in his jaws, but Sora countered by using the key-blade to hold open his mouth. He adjusted and then hit Spike sending him flying back. Spike retaliated and used his vines to try and smack Sora. Sora was easily able to dodge the attacks and cloaked himself in fire then rushed straight towards Spike. Spike managed to dodge but only just as he still caught on fire, he began rolling around trying desperately to put it out, but couldn't. In the end he retreated away still smoking a bit. Sora looked around and noticed that his friends had defeated the other heartless.

"Bushroot's getting away!" exclaimed Darkwing as he looked out the window.

"Come on guys, let's get after him," said Sora.

The five had exited the light-house and were continuing their chase against Bushroot. Although they had lost sight of him Darkwing had picked up the trail of pollen and was able to follow it a short distance from the light house to the power plant.

"It figures," said Darkwing, "Megavolt is probably here recharging his batteries, unlucky for him Bushroot's lead us right to him."

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Sora, "let's get in there and get after them."

"Hang on a second," countered Darkwing, "we could rush straight in after them, or we could surprise them. I have a special method of entry that is guaranteed to surprise and frighten the enemy. For this met6hod to be most effective we have to enter from the top."

Darkwing pulled out his gas gun, but this time it was loaded with a grappling hook. He aimed the gun at the roof and fired, the line caught and all five heroes began climbing up to the roof. It wasn't long before they had ascended to the top and began peering through the windows. Looking down they saw Megavolt and Bushroot, it looked as though they were arguing. They also saw something else. It looked like one of Bushroot's new Venus flytrap heartless, but its vines were hooked up to two electrodes and it looked like it was drawing energy from them.

"Whoa DW it looks like those two are up to something major, we better get down there and put a stop to it," advised Launchpad.

"Everyone gather round," said Darkwing, "We're all going in together and I have special way to get us there." With that he pulled out his gas gun.

* * *

><p>"You idiot," yelled Megavolt, "I told you not to come back here yet, the thing isn't ready yet. And you say you were followed by Darkwing?"<p>

"Well I had to see how you were doing;" answered Bushroot, "besides I made sure that Darkwing Duck didn't follow me here,"

"What about that key wielding guy? Did he follow you?" asked Megavolt.

"Oh no worries he was with Darkwing they were all together and I made sure none of them followed me back here," answered Bushroot.

Suddenly smoke appeared everywhere around the two villains. It was thick black smoke that the two had seen on several occasions and both of them knew what it meant. As the smoke surrounded them they heard a familiar voice cry out from somewhere in tits depths.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night," it began, "I am the key that locks your jail-cell door, I am Darkwing Duck."

The smoke began to clear and the figure of Darkwing Duck became discernible from the shadows. Darkwing wasn't the only one there though: Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Launchpad were standing behind him. All of them were in a battle ready position.

"Oh great its Darkwing Diva here," sighed Megavolt, "I guess we'll have to speed things up a bit."

With that he aimed his hands at the Venus flytrap heartless that was connected to the electrodes drawing power into itself. Megavolt charged up his hands and pumped even more electricity into it. The effect was instantaneous, the normally small heartless began to grow at an accelerated rate.

"What are you doing?" asked Sora

"I'm making this heartless super-sized," answered Megavolt, "soon it will be big enough to crush you."

"This is gonna be my biggest and best plant ever," squealed Bushroot in delight.

It was not long before the heartless had tripled in size; taking up a lot of room in the power plant. It opened its mouth and let out a fearsome growl.

"I think he's ready to play," said Megavolt turning off his electrical energy.

The now huge Venus flytrap heartless opened its mouth and let out another roar. Then it reached out with one of its vines and snagged Bushroot dragging him towards its mouth.

"No what are you doing," screamed Bushroot," I created you, let me go." Bushroot extended his arms like vines wrapping them around a pole as he struggled to pull himself to freedom. "Megavolt help!"

Megavolt aimed his hands at the monster and tried to fire, but nothing happened, "No good, I'm drained of power I need a recharge."

Bushroot finally succeeded in freeing himself landing in a crumpled heap near Megavolt. "What's going on Sparky? Why is this thing turning against us?"

"I don't know," answered Bushroot

"You've made it to big," said Sora, "It's out of your control no one can tell it what to do now, its acting of its own accord."

"Well that's no good," said Bushroot, "what do we do now?"

"We ask Darkwing Duck to help us," answered Megavolt, as he began kneeling and begging at Darkwing's feet.

"Typical," said Darkwing, "You two go messing with things that you have no idea about then when it gets out of control you ask me to help you, is that it?"

"Yeah that's pretty much it," said Megavolt.

"Will you help us or not?" begged Bushroot.

"Yeah I suppose since I'm the hero I can't really say no," said Darkwing

"I've got your back too," said Sora. Donald and Goofy raised their weapons in agreement.

"Well then," said Darkwing turning to face the monster," let's get dangerous!"

**[All boss fights will be detailed in the appendix section. Refer to that for more details as you imagine how this fight would proceed in your head.]**

The giant heartless let out another huge roar as it unleashed two vines that once again wrapped around the two big electrodes and began drawing power. The monster became enveloped in a field of electricity that surrounded it all over.

Sora materialized his key-blade ready to attack. He charged forward at the heartless and struck the monster on its mouth. He was rewarded for his efforts with a huge electric shock. The force of the blast knocked him back towards Goofy.

"Wow! What happened Sora?" asked Goofy

"I don't know," said Sora, "When I made contact with it I was electrocuted."

"That's one big bad heartless," said Darkwing, "it looks like its drawing power from those two nodes."

"We have to sever its connection to those electrodes," advised Donald.

Sora refocused his attacks on one of the two vines that was connected to the electrode. But once again as soon as his key-blade made contact with the vine Sora was electrocuted again. He flew backwards and crashed into Goofy and Donald.

"No good," said Sora, "we have to think of something else."

"That things absorbing so much power," wheezed Megavolt, "but maybe if you were to overload it you could short out its electrical field. The only problem is you'd need to hit it with even more electricity and I'm completely drained. I don't know where we'd get m ore power."

Sora and Donald smiled at each other and they both knew exactly what they needed to do,

"Thunder!" cried Sora and Donald together. Instantly bolts came from the sky and blasted the large heartless. At first they seemed to have no effect, but Sora and Donald continued their assault summoning more and more bolts of energy. After awhile it finally seemed to work. The large heartless exploded with energy and suddenly the electrical field protecting it vanished. The Venus flytrap heartless collapsed in a crumpled heap and was now dazed.

"Sora attack now!" said Goofy

Sora once again aimed his attack at one of the vines connecting the heartless to the electrode, after a few attacks the vine severed. He quickly made his way to the other vine and unleashed a combo hit on it. Like the first vine this one also snapped in half. The heartless was now vulnerable. Sora went straight for the mouth and assaulted it with a full ground combo.

"It's over!" he declared as he executed his Explosion finishing move; the balls of energy hitting the heartless.

The barrage of hits seemed to snap the heartless back to its senses. It bellowed out a loud roar and re-extended its vines attaching itself once more to the electrodes. Within a few minutes the electrical field protecting it had re-activated and surrounded the large beast shielding it.

"Well at least this time we know what to do," said Darkwing, "let's go at it again."

Having figured out how to defeat the heartless it wasn't long before Sora and the gang had thoroughly beaten it. Sora jumping up to deliver the final blow in the air.

"This is it!" he yelled as he unleashed an aerial finishing move on the monster.

The giant heartless was defeated. The beast collapsed to the ground as a large pink heart rose up out of it. As soon as the heart had risen into the sky the large heartless simply vanished leaving nothing behind.

"Is that it? Is it over?" asked Megavolt

"Is that nasty thing gone?" asked Bushroot. The two villains had taken refuge in a corner holding onto each other and shaking.

"It's not quite over," said Darkwing, "We still have you to deal with. And I think St. Canard's new prison for super-villains has an opening that the both of you can fill." He stood over the cowering and frightened enemies. Then he fired a rope from his gun that tied the two up readying them for transport.

* * *

><p>It was some time later, after Megavolt and Bushroot were taken to prison, that Darkwing reemerged from the other side of the large bridge. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Launchpad were waiting for him.<p>

"So how'd it go DW?" asked Launchpad

"Those two won't be causing anymore trouble for quite some time," answered Darkwing, "and the new super villain prison was built exactly to keep people like them inside. St. Canard is once again free of their evil clutches, at least for now, thanks again for your help Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"I'm just glad we could help," said Sora

"Ahyuk, fighting heartless is what we do," said Goofy

"But now it's time for us to go," finished Donald

"Aww gee do you really have to leave so soon?" asked Launchpad, "you guys are pretty good; DW and I could use your help why don't you stay a bit?"

"I wish we could," said Sora, "but there are other places out there that need our help too. Plus I'm looking for someone and I need to get back out there and-"

It was at that moment that Sora felt a sharp pain in his head and fell to the ground. Another vision came to his mind and he saw just for a second a girl. She was wearing a black cloak and had black hair, and most unusual of all she bore a striking resemblance to Sora himself. It looked as though she was running across this very same bridge with someone else.

"Sora!" said Donald and Goofy at the same time.

"I'm okay," said Sora getting up and rubbing his head, "I think I just saw something weird though."

"What did you see?" asked Darkwing.

"It was a girl," responded Sora, "she was wearing a black cloak and she was here on this bridge."

"What do you think it means?" asked Goofy

"I—I—I don't know," said Sora honestly, "It's similar to the vision I had when we first arrived here. But I have no idea why I'm having these visions or what they mean."

"Let's head back to Hollow Bastion," suggested Donald, "maybe Merlin can help explain what's going on."

"Yeah, good idea," agreed Sora

"I hope you feel alright," said Darkwing, "sorry you have to leave so soon, but I hope you'll come back and visit."

"Certainly," said Sora, "see you later DW,"

* * *

><p>While this entire scene was taking place on the bridge someone else was watching it all unfold. High up on one of the tall bridge posts was a character clad entirely in black sitting on the post viewing what was happening below.<p>

"So it seems Sora is starting to remember things about Roxas," said the figure. "It was bound to happened eventually, but I wonder just how much will he remember?"

"This is good though," said the figure, "if more memories start to surface that means that Roxas may not really be gone. This means there's still a chance to see him again and I can't loose that chance."

The figure threw up his hood to reveal a face with long spiky red hair.

"Don't worry Roxas," he said, "I'm gonna bring you back and then we'll be friends again. It looks like you still remember me…..I knew you had it memorized.


	6. Chapter 5

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

**Chapter 5**

The Destiny Islands were an Archipelago of differing sizes that were housed different things on each island. The large main island is where most of the residents lived while the smaller islands that were closer to the ocean were used for a variety of different purposes. One particular island, not far from the main one was a favorite hang out spot for many of the children of Destiny Island. There was a roughly built fort, a large obstacle course, many large trees, and a secret cave. The cave was of particular interest to the more curious and adventurous and also offered a large stone wall which the children used for making drawings. Of note on this wall was a drawing of a young boy. Only his face was drawn the face was one of optimism, valor, and messy spiky hair. Though he had no hands it seemed as though he was offering a star to someone else. There was another face on the cave only about a foot from the boys face. It was a girl's face that showed a face of warmth, compassion, and long flowing hair. She too was offering what looked like a star to the boy. If one were to happen upon the cave not knowing anything about these two one might say that they were offering each other gifts of some kind, though without knowing more it would all be left to supposition.

The girl from that cave painting was currently walking along the beach looking out towards the horizon. Coincidently she also managed to spot the island where she had spent much of her childhood playing with her friends there. It wasn't very far away and it seemed as though one could almost walk to it. Her attention was shifted between that island and the endless horizon as she altered her eyes to look at both. It seemed clear that she was waiting for somebody and had been waiting a long time. Most likely it was the same somebody from the cave painting. It was also clear from her expression that she had been waiting a long time for this person, and was beginning to wonder if he would ever come back. As she continued to stare at the ocean a she began to wonder if she had been waiting too long. She vocalized her thoughts to her self

"Maybe waiting isn't good enough," she said assuming she was alone.

"My thoughts exactly," said a mysterious voice, "If you have a dream don't wait. Act! One of life's little rules, got it memorized?"

The girl searched frantically for the source of that voice but didn't have to search long as she suddenly saw a great purple and black oval appear beside her. The oval materialized out of nowhere and as soon as it appeared something else did also. A tall man came stepping out of the bizarre hole he was wearing a black cloak with silver fastenings and most noticeable was his spiky red hair.

"Who are you?" she asked

"Axel," he answered

* * *

><p>"You were a fool to come here Axel," said a man with silvery blue hair and a mean looking scar on his face, "and even more of a fool to bring the girl here." He scowled at the red-headed girl being held by Axel.<p>

"I'm just trying to help out the Organization," replied Axel, "isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing Saix?"

The other man studied Axel carefully before replying. "And how does bringing us the girl help the Organization? This will only distract Sora from what we want him to do."

"We don't need Sora," said Axel, "in fact I was thinking we could use someone else to destroy the heartless."

"You mean someone like…..Roxas?" asked Saix

Axel paused before answering, "Yeah."

"I see," said Saix, "so the whole kidnapping Kairi thing is just an elaborate ploy to get Roxas back."

"Well he was doing just fine," said Axel, "I see no reason to trick Sora when Roxas is perfectly capable of—"

"You really are an idiot," interrupted Saix, "I should have known that after the whole Roxas debacle we couldn't trust you, and yet the superior thought we should keep you around."

Axel was silent he was just starting to realize how big of a mistake he had made.

"Roxas betrayed us," said Saix, "and we have someone who deals with traitors but you couldn't handle it. First he leaves the Organization and gets captured. You convinced us that he was trapped inside a virtual world and that you could rescue him. You even managed to convince the Superior that he didn't run away he was only captured. So then we send you to try and rescue him, and that didn't work. Next we told you that if you couldn't rescue him you had to kill him, and you couldn't do that either. We were all extremely worried that if he merged with Sora, that Sora would learn everything about the Organization and our machinations. As luck would have it, Sora woke up but remained clueless of who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. Now Sora is willfully destroying heartless furthering our cause, and you would undo all of that just to bring Roxas back? Knowing full well that Roxas won't help us at all. I'd say you don't have our best interests at heart."

"I don't know what's going on," said the red-head girl, "but I won't let you hurt Sora."

Saix regarded the girl with a scowl, "as if you could stop us from doing what we want."

"Well I must say that was quite a convincing speech Saix," said Axel clapping his hands loudly, "I think you've shown me how this isn't helping the Organizations interest. So why don't I just take the girl back home and we can focus more on-"

"The girl won't be going anywhere," interrupted Saix, "unfortunately she's seen too much and we can't have her telling Sora what she knows."

"But if she won't serve any purpose then there's no point keeping her," said Axel with a hint of pleading in his voice, "besides if I take her back to the island Sora won't be able to reach her."

"Sora is more than capable of traveling home," said Saix, "honestly I'm surprised he hasn't yet, perhaps he does not know. And in any case who's to say you won't come back and take her again. Also let's not forget there's someone else still out there who can travel where he pleases."

Axel was starting to get desperate, "Well I'll just take her to some uninhabited world where she won't bother anyone and then-"

This time instead of interrupting Axel with words, Saix simply raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Instantly a group of nobodies appeared around Axel all of them large and hulking and wielding what looked like giant swords.

"You're in over your head Axel," taunted Saix, "you may have wanted the girl for another reason but she will make good collateral in case Sora decides to not play nice." He snapped his fingers again and a dusk nobody appeared; in one quick move he rushed over to where Axel was and grabbed the red-head. Before Axel could react the dusk had whisked her away to back to Saix's side.

"As for you," said Saix glaring at Axel, "I don't think we can trust someone who doesn't play by our rules. I daresay you've betrayed us Axel, and we all know what happens to those who betray the Organization."

"Yeah I do," said Axel flaring up his hands and making his weapons appear, "you send me to deal with them. But who's gonna deal with me?"

"I will," said a voice. Suddenly next to Saix a black and purple oval appeared. It was the mode of transportation used by Organization members and out stepped a tall man with white hair and orange red eyes. Axel's resolve seemed to have faded.

"How disappointing Axel," said the man, "to think you showed such promise in our little group here. The other members may fear you but I do not and your about to find out why."

He turned to face the girl, "most unfortunate that Axel dragged you into this, he couldn't just leave well enough alone. And now for that you must suffer, poor Kairi," he added identifying the girl by name. He then turned to face Saix, "Saix, take Kairi to the prisons and keep her there, I will take care of Axel." No sooner had he said this then Saix obeyed, he took Kairi through the same opening the white haired man had come through and disappeared.

"How frustrating it must feel Axel," said the white haired man, "all that trouble to bring the girl to us and now she's out of your hands, I don't think Sora would appreciate this at all, and neither would Roxas."

Axel said nothing, instead he charged forward with his weapons attempting to hit the white haired man. Axel charged right through the air noticing too late that the other had disappeared; Axel looked back and saw his foe behind him.

"You're a fool to pick a fight with me," he said, "Did you forget that I am Xemnas, number one, the Superior!"

"Did you forget that I'm the one you sent against the traitors?" he countered, "were you too scared to do your own dirty work?"

"No," said Xemnas, "I was just too lazy,"

Axel didn't respond, instead he threw his two chakrams straight at Xemnas; they spun straight towards their target and looked certain to connect. At the last second Xemnas whirled around and activated his two ethereal blades. The blades of pure energy materialized and blocked both chakrams; they continued spinning but were unable to make it past the energy blades. Xemnas pushed back and sent the wheeled weapons back at Axel who caught them effortlessly.

Axel flared up and created a huge ring of fire around himself and Xemnas, he was confident that he was trapped now. Xemnas charged straight at Axel using his two blades to strike at him. Axel brought up his chakrams to try and defend himself but Xemnas was too fast and too strong, the speed of the blows increased and it wasn't long before Axel was caught in barrage of blows, the last one sending him flying through his own wall of fire. He landed on his back and raised his head and observed his circle of flame was still burning. Axel smiled thinking that he had Xemnas trapped at least for the moment. The smile faded however as a familiar looking black oval appeared, and Axel knew who was coming out of it without seeing the person.

Xemnas stepped out and pointed one of his blades at Axel's chest, "You threw it all away Axel now you'll never get your heart back."

Axel spat back defiantly, "As if you actually wanted to give any of us hearts. Yeah I know about it, you don't care what happens to us, you didn't even want a heart, just your memories from when you were Xehanort"

Xemnas couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face, but he managed to regain his composure quickly enough, "it seems you don't know everything, but you certainly know more than you're supposed to. Don't worry your existence ends here." He jabbed forward with his blade, but at the last moment Axel rolled out of the way and threw one of his weapons at Xemnas. The chakram made contact knocking Xemnas back as Axel got back on his feet and got ready to fight again.

He charged straight at Xemnas who still looked to be injured, but suddenly as he got closer he realized that Xemnas was only pretending. With his other blade Xemnas spun around and caught Axel unawares and sent him crashing down to the floor. Xemnas began to laugh as he walked to where Axel lay.  
>"Well it's been fun," he began, "but you never had any real chance at defeating me. Why do you think I picked you as the one to eliminate traitors? In case something went wrong I wanted to make sure I could best you."<p>

Axel said nothing but got to his feet quickly, he stumbled forward as he tried to escape and was barely able to summon a dark doorway to flee. Xemnas watched him enter and watched the portal close behind him.

"So you wish to prolong the inevitable?" said Xemnas, "you'll be hunted by our other members and I doubt Sora would warm up to you. In fact perhaps I better have Saix pay Sora a visit."

* * *

><p>Axel was still moving forward as he stumbled out of the portal and onto a bridge. He hit the ground and simply laid there for a few minutes trying to catch his breath, the battle with Xemnas had left him exhausted and weak. Eventually he got back to his feet and took a long look around.<p>

"Hey I recognize this place," he said aloud, "this is that world Roxas and Xion went to, the one the Organization never bothered looking into. What's it called? Oh that's right St. Canard."

Axel studied his surroundings more noticing that he was standing on a large suspension bridge. One end of the bridge extended to a downtown looking metropolis while the other lead to a lone island with what looked like some kind of fortress on it.

"The Organization didn't explore this world so none of them know anything about it. I should be safe from them here at least for the time being." Said Axel, "but I can't stay here forever; the Organization will hunt me down eventually. I have to think of something. No doubt Xemnas has told the other members about my betrayal so they'll be after me. Sora likely wouldn't want to see me either considering the trouble I've caused him, but maybe he would be happy to see me if I brought Kairi back to him. Oh how the hell am I gonna get her back? Xemnas likely has her locked up tight and there's no way I could just waltz in and get her…Unless I had help."

Axel suddenly remembered the last time he was here, "Sora and Darkwing defeated those two villains and had them put in prison, and the prison is right there on that island. I bet I can convince them to help me out, they just need the right motivation." Axel began walking at a brisk pace towards the island on the other side of the bridge.

* * *

><p>Prison did not suit Megavolt or Bushroot. Both of the villains had been locked together in a small cell in the infamous super-villain prison of St. Canard. The facility had been built at Darkwing's request after more and more notorious criminals with super-powers had flooded the city. The jail was located on an island with high walls and special devices and guards to deal with tougher criminals. Currently Megavolt and Bushroot were sharing a small cell and not getting along well. Megavolt had his power drained and Bushroot was kept away from all types of plants only being allowed to cultivate a small garden out-side for vegetables.<p>

"Ooo I can't believe that Darkwing Dork defeated us and left us to rot in prison," growled Megavolt.

"Rot, you don't mean I'm gonna go bad in here do you?" asked Bushroot.

"Shut-up cabbage head," yelled Megavolt, "as if sharing a cell with you isn't bad enough I don't want to hear you complain anymore."

"Sheesh you've been so grouchy ever since they took your power away," said Bushroot, "were you addicted to that stuff?"

"I'm not grouchy because of that," countered Megavolt, "I'm grouchy because we almost had St. Canard in our grasp and almost got rid of Darkwing Duck permanently. But now we'll never get that chance again."

"I wouldn't say never," said a voice from their window. Bushroot and Megavolt got up from their bed and went to look out the window. They saw a tall man with long spiky hair standing outside.

"Hey your wearing a black cloak too," said Bushroot, "are you with those two spies?"

"Who I am isn't important," said Axel, "It's what I can do for you and what you can do for me."

"What can you do for us?" asked Megavolt with a sneer.

"I can get you out of prison," responded Axel.

"Oh you can get us out, oh boy oh boy, please help us strange man," pleaded Bushroot.

"Not so fast there, Bushy," said Megavolt, "I doubt this guys just gonna spring us like that. What's the catch?"

"Nothing that guys like you can't handle," assured Axel. "Once I get you out of the slammer all I need from you is your assistance in a little rescue mission. With your special talents this should be easy."

Megavolt and Bushroot both considered this offer for a few minutes neither of them were keen on risking their life for someone else but neither of them much liked the idea of spending more time in prison.

"Alright fine, get us out of here and we'll do our best to help," they both said.

No sooner had they agreed then a black and purple oval materialized inside their cell. Out of that oval walked Axel straight into their cell.

"Wow neeto," exclaimed Megavolt, "I've got to get me one of those."

"Fat chance of that," said Axel, "now are you guys ready to go?"

"Let's get out of here, but first can we stop at the power plant I need to recharge," said Megavolt. As both he and Bushroot stepped into the oval.

* * *

><p>A little while later the same black and purple oval appeared again in a large castle that was entirely white. The architecture and design of the castle was unlike anything ever before imagined. Axel, Megavolt, and Bushroot all stepped out of the oval with the latter two gaping in awe as they observed their surroundings.<p>

"Whew swank place," said Bushroot, "I always figured if I made a scientific breakthrough I would get a place like this."

"Keep it down Bushroot," said Axel, "this place is crawling with guards. I would have teleported us straight to the prisons but they're sure to be guarded we need to find a way to sneak in."

"So what's the plan?" asked Megavolt.

"We need to sneak down to the prisons and find a way to lure the guards away," began Axel, "then we need to—"

He was cut off as a familiar purple and black oval appeared a few feet away. In the next instant Saix had stepped out of it.

"You are more foolish that I thought if you risked returning here," said Saix, "although I've see you brought friends."

Axel stared straight at his former friend, "come on Isa, I really don't want to fight you, just give me the girl back and let me take her home…..for old time's sake."

"Old time's sake?" scoffed Saix, "the time when we were friends is over. You chose Roxas over me and now you think you can try to be nice to me? You should have chosen your friends better Axel. If you had stuck with me we could have been quite a team at the Organization…..now you will pay the price." As he finished that last sentence he raised his hand and materialized his claymore into it.

"Well I guess we'll have to switch to plan B." said Megavolt, "which involves us fighting you."

"No wait!" warned Axel, "you don't want to fight this guy."

"He doesn't look so tough," said Bushroot.

Saix grinned, "Do you feel it? The moon's power! Moon shine down!"

* * *

><p>Megavolt, Bushroot, and Axel were lying in a crumpled heap only a few feet from where Saix stood; all of them were bruised and beaten having been thoroughly thrashed by Saix. It had only taken him five minutes to do it; he looked down at Bushroot and Megavolt.<p>

"You two don't even belong here," he said, "but I might be able to put you to some use. You're from St. Canard aren't you?"

"How did you know that?" asked Bushroot

"It doesn't matter," said Saix, "the point is I bet Axel convinced you in some manner to join him on this crazy idea of his, but you don't belong here. I could just kill you but where's the fun in that? Saix snapped his fingers and another dark oval appeared at his side.

This time a young looking boy stepped out from the oval. He had brown hair with two strands of it covering his face. He looked laid back and care free.

"Demyx I have a job for you," said Saix, "take these two back to St. Canard."

"Aww man," whined Demyx, "I thought I was supposed to be heading to Hollow Bastion."

"You can get there after you drop these two off, it won't take long. Oh and you best be prepared when you do go to Hollow Bastion. If you encounter Sora again you may have to fight him, remember we don't want him harmed, and go easy on him."

"Shouldn't be too hard," said Demyx, "but what am I supposed to do with these two?"

Saix studied Bushroot and Megavolt. "You two know how to summon and control heartless right?"

"Oh yes of course we do," said Megavolt eager to say anything that might impress Saix.

"Well then when you get back home you just go back to making heartless and use them however you see fit," said Saix. "Whatever your whims are just act on them no worries and no consequences."

"You want us to summon more heartless in our home?" said Megavolt

"Yes," answered Saix.

"Ok what's the catch this time," asked Bushroot.

"No catch," said Saix, "just keep your good work. Oh there is one other thing if you see this fool again." He pointed to Axel, "Eliminate him."

"Oh sure no problem," they both said in unison.

"We've got a score to settle with him for dragging us into this mess in the first place," said Bushroot.

Demyx opened a portal and the two villains followed him in disappearing and the portal closed. Saix watched them all leave and then turned his attention to Axel grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground. Saix then slammed him into a wall.

"I've wanted to do this for a long time Lea," said Saix. "Ever since you befriended that little punk Roxas, and now I finally have my chance."

Axel said nothing but used his hands to try and free himself, unfortunately his efforts proved fruitless.

"You'll never see Roxas again, the closest you'll ever get is seeing Sora, but too bad you realized that too late," taunted Saix. "Don't worry Axel after Sora has outlived his usefulness I'll make sure and personally kill him, then you and he will be reunited in the abyss."

The last words acted as a stimulant on Axel he raised his legs and kicked hard at Saix causing him to stumble backwards releasing Axel. He fell to the floor and gulped in a huge lungful of air. Saix had already recovered and was coming straight at him. Axel was too weak and tired to even think of fighting so he did the only thing he could think of, he ran away. Saix stood still and watched as Axel ran away again.

"This is starting to get frustrating," he sighed as Axel's portal faded.

* * *

><p>Sora was sitting in the cockpit of the gummy ship still thinking about everything that had just happened. Discovering Xemnas was the leader of the Organization, King Mickey fleeing after him, Axel's apparent betrayal, and learning that by destroying heartless he was in fact helping the Organization further their goals. It was all too much to think about and it all felt so overwhelming.<p>

"Sora are you alright?" asked Goofy

"I'm not sure," replied Sora, "I'm still thinking about what Axel said."

"He could have been lying," said Donald

"I don't think he was," said Sora, "I can't explain it but I somehow I feel we can trust him."

"But he's with the Organization," said Donald.

"Yeah," agreed Goofy, "but Saix said that he's betrayed them. If he's not working for them maybe he's on our side now.

Sora agreed, "if he was is the Organization he would know all their plans, I think he told us about their plans for a reason. So now the question is what do we do?"

"I think you still have to use the key-blade Sora," said Goofy, "I know what Axel said but we still need to defeat the heartless. Even if it accomplishes the Organizations goals we have to hope that everything will work out.

"Yeah I guess you're right," said Sora, "Well let's get going then; we still have worlds to save."


	7. Chapter 6

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

**Chapter 6**

Axel once again fell face first out of his portal. He got a quick look around and noticed that he was outside a large mansion. The mansion was behind a gate and seemed to be the only thing in the area. To the left of the mansion was what looked like an old forest. He recognized the area he was in as Twilight Town. He stayed on the ground for a few minutes until he opened his eyes and noticed two pairs of feet. One of the person's was obviously very small as he looked up he was able to see his face. The face was smiling and had two large ears. Axel instantly recognized the face.

"Your king Mickey," he said to the smaller person.

"Ah-ha," replied Mickey, "and I know you your Axel."

"So you memorized my name, how touching," said Axel.

"We know who you are," said a voice, "the question is why have you come here?"

Axel turned to locate the source of the voice and saw another person dressed in a black cloak, similar in style to the kind the Organization wore, but he wasn't perturbed by this.

"Hello Riku," greeted Axel, "I figured you were still around, though I'm honestly surprised you didn't stick with Sora, considering how much you sacrificed for him. How's your face doing?"

Riku didn't answer; his face was still hidden beneath his cloak which he now adjusted with his hands as if trying to further obfuscate himself.

"We hear you've been kicked out of the Organization Axel," said Mickey.

"I'd like to think we've mutually parted company," replied Axel.

"If that's the case then why is the Organization hunting you down?" asked Riku.

Axel paused a few minutes before answering, "Okay I guess you got me, I betrayed the Organization and now they're after me. But don't think that means I'm on your side all of a sudden."

"You mean you'd rather fight us?" asked Riku.

"I don't want to fight anyone," said Axel," I just want to be alone for now."

"Axel," said Mickey, "We know about what happened to Kairi and what you tried to do for her."

"Geesh, news certainly travels fast around here don't it?' sighed Axel.

"Well to be fair we've been keeping a close watch on you ever since we found out you betrayed the Organization," said Riku.

"You've been following me?" asked Axel.

"Not following per se," said Riku, "Just looking out for your well being, I was watching over you in case you got into trouble I could help you out."

"How very touching," said Axel sarcastically, "I'd of thought you'd be looking after Sora."

"I'm doing that," said Mickey, "Sora doesn't know it and neither do Donald or Goofy but I've been watching over then and have even helped them out of a few jams."

**[A reference to the fact that Mickey can help you in certain battles in KH 2]**

"Seems there's a lot you're not telling him," spat Axel, "I thought you guys trusted each other."

"What's this?" asked Riku, "does this mean you actually care about him now? Have you realized how much like Roxas he is?"

Now it was Axel's turn not to respond but he turned away from Riku and wiped his hand across his face.

"Axel I know why you liked Roxas so much, it's because he looked like Ventus," said Mickey

Once again Axel didn't respond he kept his face turned away and pretended that he didn't hear anything said by Mickey. He was silent a long time until finally he brought himself to speak.

"What ended up happening to Ventus?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Mickey, "According to Yen Sid his heart was badly damaged and he couldn't wake up because of it. Aqua was supposed to take him somewhere where he could rest in safety while she waited for him to wake up. But I never heard from her again after she left so I don't know what happened to either of them."

"I guess it's a long shot of him still being alright," said Axel bitterly, "I bet Xehanort got to them first, makes me wish I'd been able to defeat him."

"We may never learn the truth," said Mickey, "but that's still enough of a reason to keep fighting. We need you Axel, and now that you're being hunted you need us to. The Organization will not stop until you're dead, so help us defeat them if nothing else to help yourself."

"You certainly know how to motivate a guy, I guess that's why you became king," answered Axel. "So what is it you want from me?"

"Well for starters you could help lead Sora to the Nobodies home world," suggested Riku.

"What for you could do that yourself?" said Axel.

Riku's voice was shaky as he answered, "I don't want to."

"Oh please," said Axel, "Is this all about the way you look? Are you going to avoid Sora forever?"

"I'll avoid him until I'm ready," replied Riku.

"And when will that be?" asked Axel.

Riku paused again for a long time before answering, "I don't know…"

"Well whatever, when or if you finally decide to tell Sora is your business. I've decided I'll go ahead and help you guys. I'll make sure and lead Sora in the direction of the Organization, but not right away."

"Why not?" asked Mickey.

"Because there are still other worlds that need his help," said Axel.

"You mean due to your interference?" supplied Riku.

"Okay so I screwed things up a bit in St. Canard. I was only trying to rescue Kairi," said Axel.

"Don't worry she's safe for now," said Riku, "at least she will be as long as Sora keeps destroying heartless. Once all the worlds are safe we'll head to the Nobodies castle and rescue her. We'll stop Xemnas once and for all too."

"I guess I'll go find Sora and tell him about what's wrong in St. Canard," said Axel.

"Okay go ahead," said Mickey, "after that meet us back here in Twilight Town."

"Oh and Axel," began Riku, "please don't tell him about me. I swear I'll tell him eventually just not now."

"Your choice," finished Axel, "knowing Sora though I don't think he'll care one bit."

With that Axel opened up a portal and went to find Sora

* * *

><p>"Sorry we can't stay a bit longer," said Sora to his friends as they strolled outside in the Disney Castle Garden. "I know you guys must really miss your home."<p>

"Yeah it sure is nice to visit every once in awhile but we still got work to do," squawked Donald.

"It sure is good to know the Cornerstone of light is still working though," said Goofy, "that means we don't have to worry about any bad guys trying to take over here. It looks like it does a good job of keeping out the heartless and nobodies too."

"Other worlds may still have problems that need solving but not here," interjected Sora, "that's good to know."

"I guess we better get back out there and see what worlds still need our help," said Donald.

"That's a good idea," said a voice, "I think I can point you in the right direction."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked around and noticed a familiar black and purple portal appear before them. The voice they heard obviously came from it and soon Axel had stepped out of the portal in front of them.

"Hey guys," said Axel. He was greeted by Sora readying his key-blade obviously with the intent to attack him. "Ok so maybe you're not thrilled to see me."

"Gee what gave you that idea," snarled Sora sarcastically.

"How did you even get in here?" asked Goofy, "the Cornerstone of light is supposed to prevent bad guys from getting in our castle."

"Well that should dispel some of your fears then," assured Axel, "If I got in it means I'm not a bad guy. Did you already forget what I told you last time we met?"

"I didn't forget it," said Sora, "but I also didn't forget that you were the one who kidnapped Kairi either."

"I'm sincerely sorry about that," said Axel, "but I've got more important things to discuss with you. For instance what can you tell me about those visions you had at St. Canard?"

"How do you know about that?"Asked Sora.

"I know a lot about everything," said Axel coolly, "Just humor me and tell me."

"It was just a real brief glance about the world," said Sora, "that was it really."

"Are you sure? Was there anything else?" asked Axel.

"Yeah there was," answered Sora, "I had a vision of a girl with black hair in that world who looked a little like me."

"And what was her name," asked Axel.

"I don't know her name," replied Sora.

"Yes you do, come one think a bit, go to the depths of your memories and you'll remember her name," coaxed Axel.

Sora closed his eyes and thought, he searched all over his mind for some sort of clue as to who that girl was, but he couldn't seem to find anything that pointed to her identity. He concentrated some more and then something strange happened. He saw a vision of three people sitting at the top of a clock-tower. As he took in more of the scene he noticed that this clock-tower was in Twilight Town. All of them were wearing black cloaks and eating blue bars of ice cream. He recognized the first person right away as Axel, the one sitting next to him he'd seen in a picture before, it was Roxas. Finally he turned his attention to the third person and saw it was that same girl, he focused more on her and suddenly he knew her name as if he had known it all his life.

"Her name is Xion," said Sora, "I saw you, her, and Roxas, eating ice cream in Twilight Town."

"Tell me Sora, what do you know about Roxas?" queried Axel.

"Not much," answered Sora, "just that he lives in Twilight Town I guess, he hangs out with those other kids there, look." Sora pulled out the picture he had been given, the one that included the kids from Twilight Town, and handed it to Axel.

Axel took the picture and looked it over a bit before handing it back to Sora.

"There's a lot you don't know," said Axel, "let me prove my friendship by telling you some of it. I can't tell you everything but I'll do the best I can. Let me prove I that I am on your side and that I want to help you." Axel stretched out his hand and offered it to Sora.

Sora paused a few seconds but finally accepted Axel's hand and shook it. "I don't know why, but for some reason I feel I can trust you."

Axel smiled as "We have a bit of history together Sora, tell me do you remember anything about Castle Oblivion?"

* * *

><p>"So your saying that the reason myself, Goofy, and Donald woke up in those weird chambers was because we needed to have our memories restored?" asked Sora.<p>

"Got it memorized?" asked Axel.

"And also apparently that I've met you and a few of the other Organization members before," said Sora.

"Now you're getting it," complimented Axel.

"And this girl Namine, she did something to my memories?" finished Sora.

"The Organization, or more specifically Marluxia, tried to re-work your memories so that he could control you," said Axel, "they had Namine make you believe that you two were childhood friends and wanted to use her so that he could control you. Come to think of it I'm actually the one who saved you from his machinations; I don't think you've ever properly thanked me for it."

"Why'd you bother saving me?" asked Sora.

"Well mainly because I realized that Marluxia was a traitor to the Organization. The only reason he wanted you was so that he could use you to fight the Organization and make himself the leader," explained Axel.

"So why didn't the Organization want me under their control in the first place," queried Sora.

"Well because honestly they didn't need you," said Axel, "they already had a key-blade wielder who was accomplishing their goal of destroying heartless and freeing hearts. In fact they were quite content to let you stay in stasis out of their way."

"Hey wait a minute Sora," interrupted Goofy, "didn't Jiminy's Journal say something about thanking Namine?"

"Hey your right it did," agreed Doanld.

"Yeah," said Sora, "I remember now! None of us could remember how we'd gotten in those chambers and why we were there. The only note in the journal was to thank someone named Namine and none of us knew who that was."

"See," said Axel, "I'm not lying to you, everything I told you is true."

"Ok, but now what?" asked Sora, "how do we stop the Organization and rescue Kairi?"

"I can take you to where they're hiding," said Axel.

"Great," said Sora, "let's go now."

"Hold on a second there, I'll take you there but not yet. First there's some stuff you have to take care of," said Axel.

"What kind of stuff?" asked Sora.

"Unfortunately due to a completely unforeseeable circumstance Megavolt and Bushroot have escaped from their prison in St. Canard and are loose running amok," explained Axel. "You're going to have to deal with them first before we go gallivanting off to fight the Organization."

"Wait how do you know about those two?" queried Sora

"Well," began Axel, he was fidgeting and stuttering as he said the next part, "I may have had something to do with setting them free, but trust me I had the best intentions."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Donald.

"Ok fine I guess we have to go back to St. Canard to fix this," completed Sora.

"Wish I could join you," said Axel, "but with the Organization out hunting me it would be too dangerous. I promise I'll find you afterwards and take you to the Organization's headquarters. When you're ready to go just head to Twilight Town and I'll meet you there."

"Garsh what will you do in the meantime?" asked Goofy.

"Well I was kind of hoping I could hide out here," asked Axel. "You said something about evil forces not being able to get in and with all the Organization after me I figure it's better to just stay here out of the way."

Sora, Goofy, and Donald all looked at each other for a few minutes before deciding.

"It's not really my call," said Sora, "this is your home. I'm starting to trust Axel but I don't want to out your place at risk in case he's lying to us."

"I think Axel has changed," said Goofy, "The Organization wouldn't waste time tracking him down if it wasn't true."

"It could all be an act," suggested Doanld, "maybe they orchestrated this whole thing just to try and get us to trust him."

"I don't know," said Sora, "I feel he's telling us the truth."

The three turned around to face the red-headed boy.

"Ok Axel, you can hide here for now," said Donald and Goofy.

"Much obliged," responded Axel, "I thank you for your hospitality."

"Just be ready to help us once we're done in St. Canard," said Sora.

With that the heroes raced back to their Gummy Ship in order to plot a new course to an old world.


	8. Chapter 7

**The Key That the Jailer Threw Away**

Chapter 7

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had finally arrived back in St. Canard in the middle of the large suspension bridge. They looked around but everything seemed normal and they could detect nothing was out of place.

"Garsh everything looks okay," said Goofy.

"Does this mean Axel tricked us?" asked Donald

"I don't think so," said Sora, "we just got here I think we should look around some more. We've never actually been across this bridge let's go see what's on the other side."

The three heroes began the trek across the bridge.

It wasn't long before they got to the other side and noticed a large menacing building. It looked like some kind of fortress with watch towers and guard lights. As they looked closer it became obvious that the building was in fact a prison.

"Is that where Megavolt and Bushroot were locked up?" asked Goody.

"Yeah I think so," replied Sora, "let's investigate inside some more."

Sora and Co. entered into the building. They walked past a large door that was supposed to be locked but had been left open. It was obviously supposed to keep the prisoners inside the main room even if they somehow managed to get out of their cells. Beyond the door were rows and rows of cells. They each had one bunk bed and barely had any space inside; all the cells were vacant but the doors were still locked. Sora walked all the way to the end of the hall peering into the rooms, but couldn't find anything unique to suggest which jail the villains had occupied. Finally he reached the end

"So which one were Megavolt and Bushroot in?" wondered Sora.

"I don't know," answered Donald, "they all look the same, maybe we should ask Darkwing?"

"Yeah we should go and get him," agreed Sora.

"Not so fast," said a voice.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned around to see Megavolt and Bushroot at the entrance leading into the prison. Megavolt aimed his electricity at the control box for the door leading into the area and shorted it out. The large barred door came crashing down trapping the heroes on one side and the villains on the other.

"That wasn't a very smart decision to come looking for us here after we've been long gone," taunted Megavolt in his wheezy voice.

"Good luck for us that we saw you guys come in here," said Bushroot. "We followed you in and now we have you trapped."

"How'd you see us," demanded Sora, "when we didn't see you?"

"Oh correction," replied Bushroot, "we didn't see you, they did." He pointed inside the cell area where heartless had suddenly appeared.

"We've gotten even better at summoning these minions," bragged Megavolt, "and now we know how to communicate with them too. That man in the black cloak helped us."

"A black cloak!" screamed Donald, "oh no that means the Organization is involved, Axel's betrayed us!"

"Axel?!" scoffed Megavolt, "he's been nothing but trouble for us and if we ever see him again he's toast for sure."

"Axel wasn't the one who taught us new things about the heartless," said Bushroot, "it was some other guy in a black cloak. I think his name was Demyx, he was real helpful too, and said he'd come back and teach us even more stuff….come to think of it why is he taking so long?"

"Ah we don't need his help Bushy," said Megavolt, "we know all we need to know about these things. This time we won't make the same mistake, we're going to get rid of you guys and then take care of Darkwing Dumb ourselves. No more relying on supper big heartless."

"Adios amigos," called Bushroot, "We'll leave you in the capable hands of our pets and now we're off to get rid of Darkwing." With that Bushroot and Megavolt turned and left it wasn't long before they were completely out of sight.

Sora and his friends turned to face the swarm of heartless.

**[Information: Defeat all the heartless]**

Sora turned to face his foes and raised his key-blade to attack. He charged forward and began swinging at anything that moved. The large flying lighting-bug heartless were blasting away with powerful electric bursts, Sora jumped high into the air to get in range of them and attacked with graceful air combos. It took time but eventually he defeated all the flying enemies. Next he focused his attention on the ground ones.

The flytrap heartless were whipping their vines out trying to smack him with a sharp hit. They were also using their jaws to take attempt biting him. Sora got caught by one of the vine whips and then another, and then another. The multiple hits were not that strong but like paper cuts they stung hard and it wasn't long before he felt overwhelmed.

"Light" Sora shouted as he changed into Master Form. His clothes were now gold and black, he had an extra key-blade, and he could now draw on both strength and magic to help him fight.

He rushed towards a group of heartless while using fire. His all powerful flames engulfed the surprised heartless and they tried to get out of the way. But the large area of his fire caught them and they started burning. He continued using his fire magic to rush through the plant foes and cut them down. The heartless continued trying to bite him but were rewarded for their efforts with more bursts of fire.

After the flytrap heartless were defeated two large bodies appeared. Sora was caught off guard by their appearance and their rushing attack sent him flying back. He recovered and managed to land behind one. Instead of using magic he unleashed with physical combos pounding on the weak spot of the beast. His powerful attacks quickly brought it down. The other one charged at him, but Sora let it come and waited for the perfect moment. He reacted to the thing's charge and countered raining savage blows upon it. Within moments it too was destroyed and the room was free of heartless.

Sora powered down, his companions reappeared and surveyed the room.

"Dang! Megavolt and Bushroot got the jump on us," exclaimed Goofy.

"And we're trapped," observed Donald.

"No we're not," said Sora, "not as long as I've got this."

Sora waved his key-blade and pointed it at the door. A beam of light shot out from the blade right at the door and in an instant it opened freeing them.

"So what do we do now?" questioned Goofy as they wandered outside the prison.

"We have to go find Darkwing Duck, if Megavolt and Bushroot are after him he'll need our help for sure," said Sora.

The trio ran to the middle of the large suspension bridge and found the secret entrance that lead up to Darkwing's hideout. They made their way inside only to find that the hero wasn't at home.

"Hellooooooo!" called Goofy, "anybody home?"

No answer came.

"I guess he's not here," said Sora, "So we have to get back out there and find him before Bushroot and Megavolt do."

The group left the hero's hideout and traveled back into the city. They decided that to head for the villain's base to see if they could find out more about what either of them were scheming. Sora and Co. made their way to Bushroot's Greenhouse, but found that it was also empty. There was no sign of either Darkwing Duck or Bushroot and nothing looked out of the ordinary or indicated that there was anything amiss.

"Something's not right here," commented Sora, "I can't put my finger on it but something just feels out of place."

"Garsh I get the same feeling Sora," said Goofy.

"What do you think it is?" asked Donald.

"I'm not sure, but I think we should take a closer look around and see if we can find any clues that might lead us to something. Last time Darkwing was able to lead us to where the bad guys were by following a trail," observed Sora. "Let's spread out and look around for clues."

**[Information: Search and find three clues]**

Sora searched among the dense foliage and it wasn't long before he found his first clue, it was a torn piece of black cloth. The swatch had been caught on a branch and torn from something; Sora took a closer look and noticed something familiar about the cloth. It was at that point that he had another vision in his head. He saw a young boy wearing the black cloak of Organization XIII crouching down in the bushes looking out at something. It was Bushroot and he was talking to himself.

_"__Ever since I turned into a walking plant I've been lonely," said the thing, "I've tried to fill my life with other things but nothing seems to work. Sigh my heart aches for a companion."_

_"I once tried growing my own bride, but that didn't work out so much. But you know what they say back to the drawing board. No reason I can't try again and this time get it right. Right Spike?!"_

_"The only thing is I'll need a large amount of electricity to make this work properly, and my last battle with that dratted Darkwing Duck damaged my generator. It will take a long time to fix, if only there was a way to fix it faster. What do you think Spike?"_

It was at this point in the vision that Sora saw the boy who was hiding being tossed from his hiding place and out into the open. The next thing he saw was the face of the boy, and this shocked him.

"Roxas!" shouted Sora. With that the vision ended.

"Sora are you okay?" asked Donald

"I—I—I don't know," he answered, "I had another strange vision and I saw Roxas, he was here in this greenhouse he was spying on Bushroot and I think he's really a member of Organization XIII."

"Whoa whoa slow down a bit," said Goofy, "Are you sure that's what you saw?"

"I'm mostly sure," replied Sora.

"But we still don't know why you're having these visions in the first place," said Goofy, "Garsh maybe we should have asked Axel more about it."

"Well when we see him again I'll make sure of it," said Sora, "but I still don't understand why I'm having these visions or why I saw Roxas?"

"I don't know Sora, but you said you also saw Bushroot did he say or do anything that could give us a hint as to what's going on right now," asked Goofy.

"He said something about trying to make a bride," responded Sora.

A bride? Hmmmm? I might have found something related to that," said Goofy. He produced a torn bad of posy blossom. "I found this over in that corner, if Bushroot's trying to make a bride I bet he'd like to use a posy, they're one of the prettiest flowers."

"Wak, check this out," called Donald.

The gang turned in Donald's direction and discovered a torn piece of paper, the half that was visible said "come meet me at my hideout and we'll go together."

"The rest of the paper is gone," exclaimed Sora, "but it says to come to my hideout; isn't this greenhouse Bushroot's hideout?"

"Yeah it is," said Goofy.

"What about Megavolt?" queried Donald, "he must have a hideout to; maybe the letter meant his place."

"But they were going somewhere else after," suggested Goofy

"Maybe they were," said Sora, "but we should still check the lighthouse first I think."

"Good idea Sora, let's go check that place out," said Donald.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy made their way across town and towards the lighthouse where they had first chased Bushroot to. When they arrived it was also to an empty lighthouse no one was there and it seemed to that there was something off about this place.

"It seems strange that neither Megavolt or Bushroot would be at their hideout," commented Sora.

"Garsh I wonder where they are then?" asked Goofy.

"I don't know, but I bet if we look around we might find more clues that could lead us to their location," said Sora.

**[Information: Search and find three clues]**

The three heroes began searching through the Megavolt's lighthouse trying again to find something that would lead them to the location of the electric evildoer. As they continued their search Sora located a map of St. Canard. He examined it closer and discovered that the large bridge was circled with a bright red marker.

"Guys check this out," he called, "This is a map of St. Canard and look the large bridge I wonder why that is?"

"Maybe Megavolt's planning something there?" suggested Donald

"But what?" thought Sora.

"Hmmm I might have found a clue," said Goofy.

The group came over to where Goofy was standing and looked at what he was holding. It was a pair of binoculars.

"I wonder why they have these? Do you think they could be looking for something?" he asked.

"I think they're looking for something on the bridge, that's why it's circled," said Donald.

"Oh no," exclaimed Sora, "I think what they're looking for is Darkwing's hideout. I mean think about it a bit, they have the bridge circled and binoculars for looking far away."

"We've got to get back to the bridge and stop them," said Sora.

"Hang on a second," interrupted Donald, "I found the other half of that torn note. Take a look."

Donald held up the other half of the note and they were able to read the first half. "Bushroot that guy Demyx said we should wait for him at the power plant we should go together to make sure Sora or Darkwing doesn't ambush us so…"the letter was obviously torn after this.

"It seems that they're waiting for Demyx, maybe he was going to teach them some more things about the heartless," suggested Sora.

"Well if they were waiting for Demyx they're going to be waiting a long time since we defeated him in Hollow Bastion" said Goofy

"That means they might still be there expecting him to show up, if we head over to the power plant we might still be able to find them," said Sora.

"What about the bridge?" interjected Donald, "they could be there?"

"Let's check the plant first," said Sora, "then we'll try the bridge."

* * *

><p>With that the heroes headed out of the lighthouse and towards the power plant where they had first fought the giant plant heartless. They approached cautiously at the entrance and weren't surprised to hear voices coming from inside. Slowly they crept towards the door and moved as close as they dared to try and hear what the voices were saying. Instantly they recognized Bushroot's voice.<p>

"What's taking that Demyx guy so long to show up?" he asked.

"Are you sure he wasn't lying?" asked Megavolt, "Those guys in the black cloaks have been real fickle; I'm starting to wonder if we should stop listening to them."

"He said that he had a rough idea of where Darkwing's hideout was remember?" said Bushroot. "When he brought us back to St. Canard we told him about Darkwing and how he beat us last time. He promised to help us look for his secret headquarters. Then he said he had other stuff to take care of but would come back and help us look some more later. Although you are right he seems to be taking his time."

"He's right about one thing though," continued Megavolt, "we've been going about this all wrong. Rather than wait for Darkwing Duck to come after us we should try going after him. So it makes sense to try and find his hideout and attack him there."

"What makes you think we should start at the bridge?" asked Bushroot.

"Last time I was studying the power lines of St. Canard I noticed there's a lot of extra power going to the bridge, more than you would expect," answered Megavolt, "If there's one thing I know it's electricity so I say we start there first. With these binoculars we should be able to spot anything even in the high reaches of the top towers."

"How much longer do you want to wait for Demyx?" asked Bushroot.

"I don't know, but I don't want to wait too long," said Megavolt, "we may have taken care of that pest Sora, but Darkwing is still out there and I get the feeling he could drop in on us at any moment."

It was at that point that a familiar looking plume of black smoke appeared in front of and around the villains obscuring their vision. In the next instant a voice rang out from within the smoke that sent chills down their spines.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the key-blade that cuts through the dark!"

"Not again," wheezed Megavolt.

"I am Darkwing Duck!" declared the fearless hero as his silhouette appeared inside the smoke and became visible. Launchpad had also appeared beside him.

"Ugg, why can't we catch a break from you?" screamed Megavolt in exasperation.

"Justice doesn't take any breaks," said Darkwing, "especially when there are two escaped criminals on the loose both of whom have a date with St. Canard's jails."

"Well I guess we're going to have to stand that date up," countered Bushroot, "besides I'm planning on becoming a married vegetable soon."

"You forgot that we have some new friends Darkwing Dipstick," yelled Megavolt as he raised his hands and heartless arose around the two ducks trapping them. He had summoned his own special firefly heartless

"Oh," said Darkwing as his courage failed him, "I guess I did forget about that,"

"You didn't forget about us did you?" called Sora as he, Donald, and Goofy came running into the room to Darkwing's aid.

"Not you three," groaned Bushroot, "didn't we already take care of you?"

"This isn't called a key-blade for nothing," taunted Sora as he flashed the key-blade in Bushroot's face.

Bushroot responded by summoning his own brand of heartless, the large flytrap ones to join Megavolt's.

Megavolt's face grew red with fury as he motioned his hands forward and ordered, "Heartless, get them!"

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Darkwing, and Launchpad got into a battle ready position as the heartless charged at them. Sora slashed forward with his weapon and cut through a firefly heartless. Goofy had thrown his shield into a group of heartless to break through them. Donald had sparked up some fire to burn the flytrap heartless. Even Launchpad had been able to kill a heartless by accidently tripping into it. Darkwing had rushed forward with a punch and kick combo only to get his hand caught in the mouth of one of the flytrap heartless. He struggled to pull himself free until Sora came to his aid.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," answered Darkwing, "but there are so many heartless, how are we going to get rid of them all?"

"I have an idea," said Sora, "Darkwing lets attack together!"

Sora and Darkwing combined their attacks to start their limit. Darkwing fired his gas gun and enveloped himself and Sora in a cloud of smoke. They disappeared and teleported to a different part of the field. When they reappeared again they let off a small explosion that damaged all nearby enemies. Then they teleported again to another location and did the same thing there and once again he vanished and reappeared somewhere else. This happened three more times and then it was time to end it.

"Darkwing Duck," called Sora.

"They won't see a thing," said Darkwing as he pointed his gun straight up and fired a huge plume of gas that made all the surviving heartless confused as they tried to determine where their targets were. The smoke covered a wide area and managed to affect several heartless.

"An excellent idea," said Darkwing, "what did we just do?"

"It's our limit attack, replied Sora, "it's a strong attack that we can do together by combining our powers. It's just the trick for taking out large groups of enemies."

"It seems to have worked DW," remarked Launchpad, "Looks like all the heartless are gone."

"Is everyone okay?" asked Donald as he examined the battlefield.

"Ahyuck I think we're all good," said Goofy, "but it looks like Megavolt and Bushroot got away."

"They won't get far!" exclaimed Darkwing, "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Launchpad it's time to end this once and for all. Let's go and take care of those two and stop them from causing anymore mischief."

* * *

><p>The group gathered together and marched out of the power plant. They went straight for the bridge and as soon as they arrived saw Megavolt and Bushroot running away.<p>

"You idiot, why'd you lead us this way," Megavolt yelled to Bushroot, "Were trapped, the only thing on the other side of the bridge is prison and now Darkwing and Sora are coming after us!"

"Well I was nervous I didn't know what to do" stammered Bushroot, "besides we can always summon up some heartless to get rid of these guys."

"No," said Megavolt, "I'm tired of using those useless heartless, if they were that good they would have destroyed them already. It's time we finish this ourselves Bushy."

"So you aren't hiding behind your minions anymore are you?" taunted Darkwing.

"No it's time we stop relying on them and take care of you personally," answered Megavolt.

**[Time for a boss fight; you get to fight both Megavolt and Bushroot together. Good Luck!] **

Megavolt powered up creating a firestorm of sparks around him. Bushroot got his vine-like arms in to a battle ready position prepared to attack. Sora, Donald, and Goofy raised their weapons in response. Goofy launched his shield straight at Bushroot and connected with him, Donald joined in on the assault summoning up fire to burn the leafy thug. Sora came at Megavolt with his key-blade and was able to land consecutive strikes on him. Megavolt was caught in the barrage and unable to break free until Sora sent him flying with an explosion.

"This is it!" He exclaimed as the orbs of energy engulfed Megavolt and sent him flying. Sora went after Megavolt again to continue the attack but was caught off guard as Megavolt unleashed an attack of his own. Megavolt gathered energy around him and formed it into a large electrical dome that Sora was trapped in. The electricity exploded damaging Sora and throwing him away from Megavolt. Sora was dazed from the blow he didn't recover fast enough as Megavolt fired a beam of electricity at him, the energy hit Sora hard and he felt himself being electrocuted by its power. Darkwing noticed him in trouble and quickly raced to his aid. He approached Megavolt and delivered a powerful kick that distracted him and stopped him from harming Sora.

Sora rushed forward and caught Megavolt In another string of combos, but before he could deliver the finishing blow he was lifted off his feet as a huge spiked root came from underneath him and sent him flying straight up. Sora did an aerial recovery and looked around to find Bushroot with his legs in the ground sending spiked roots out that were targeting the heroes. Sora focused his efforts on him and began an assault on Bushroot. He landed several blows on him and prepared for a finishing move.

"Back off!" yelled Sora as he thrust straight through Bushroot breaking down his defense. He turned around and was about to start attacking again when he was grabbed and lifted up by Bushroot's two vines. For a few seconds he dangled in the air, but then Bushroot threw him hard against the ground. Sora struggled to get up; realizing he needed a second wind he raised his key-blade and cast sure on himself. He felt the refreshing power as the healing magic coursed through him.

Sora rushed back into the battle and noticed that Bushroot had now entrapped Goofy in his vines and was preparing to throw him. Sora cloaked himself in fire and rushed at Bushroot setting him on fire and causing him to drop Goofy. While he was still struggling to put out the flames Sora teamed up with Goofy to attack with the knockback limit.

"Goofy," called Sora. He and Goofy stood together as Sora began batting Goofy's shield at Bushroot. They scored hit after hit on him and then Sora held Goofy up for the finish as he launched Goofy like a missile straight at Bushroot scoring more hits on the veggie villain. The attack was enough to finally knock him out, now only Megavolt was left.

Sora looked around for Megavolt and saw that he was standing still summoning large bolts of lightning at himself. He was obviously immune to the electricity, but when it made contact with him it spread out horizontality in three large bolts.

Sora rushed forward at Megavolt, he tried to attack him, but couldn't get close enough to land a hit on him. The electric bolts were firing to fast and to strong. Sora thought for a moment and then decided to use Megavolt's attacks against him.

"Defense!" he yelled creating a large dome barrier around him. The lightning made contact with it and then in an instant was transformed into a magical attack that bounced back at Megavolt. The attack sent Megavolt flying into the air and stopped his electrical barrage. Sora chased up after him and began landing air combos on him finally ending with an aerial finish.

"It's over!" he declared as he landed the final blow on Megavolt.

"I'll get you for this," cried Megavolt as he was forced into submission.

* * *

><p>It was sometime later when Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Darkwing emerged from the other side of the large bridge after once again putting Bushroot and Megavolt in prison. They strolled triumphantly across the bridge and reached the other side as though they were heroes returning from war.<p>

"Thanks again for your help," said Darkwing, "the citizens of St. Canard will sleep easier knowing that Megavolt and Bushroot are no longer a threat."

"I'm glad we could help make this world safer," said Sora, "but it's time for us to go now. I have, two friends I'm looking for and I'd like nothing more than to find them both. For some reason I feel I might soon see them again."

"Oh could I give you a hand. As you know by now I'm really good at finding people," said Darkwing.

"DW is the best there is," said Launchpad, "he can find your friends in no time flat."

"Thanks for the offer," said Sora, "but this is something I have to do myself."

"Hey that reminds me," began Darkwing, "does one of your friends have that key-blade thing that you have?"

Sora thought about it for a while before finally responding, "To be honest I don't really know, why do you ask?"

"Oh Because I've seen another guy who was using that same type of weapon here a long time ago," responded Darkwing, "LP do you have those pictures."

Launchpad handed a folder of photographs to Darkwing who in turn handed them to Sora. Sora looked at the photos and was shocked when he recognized the face. It was Roxas! He was dressed in the same type of cloak worn by members of Organization XIII. The photos showed Roxas wielding a key-blade and fighting with Bushroot's pet, Spike.

"Launchpad and I were doing some reconnaissance on Bushroot one day when we saw this scene," explained Darkwing, "I'm not exactly sure what was going on but it appeared as though they were fighting, I thought it was interesting so I took those pictures. The funny thing was that we never saw that guy again. When I first met you there was a moment when I thought you were this same person, I completely forgot about the key thing until now when you mentioned looking for someone I thought maybe you were looking for this person."

Sora was still staring at the picture and couldn't believe his eyes. Here was another key-blade warrior who might possibly be working for Organization XIII. As he looked closer at the picture his mind began to wander and soon he was having another vision.

He saw the boy Roxas being chased by what was clearly Bushroot. He was running towards the large suspension bridge. In the distance he could see someone coming from the opposite side. It was a girl she was wearing the same type of cloak as Roxas. She was also being chased by what looked like Megavolt. As the girl came closer he noticed that she looked very familiar but couldn't quite place her. He saw the both of them join hands and then run together towards a black portal. As soon as they entered the portal they disappeared. At that same time the vision stopped.

"Sora are you okay?" asked Goofy.

"Were you having another of those visions?" asked Donald.

"Yeah I was," answered Sora, "and I think it's about time we found out why. There's a certain red-head who can answer my questions. Let's go and pay him a visit."

* * *

><p>Sora still couldn't believe his eyes as he looked around. One moment ago there were thousands of Nobodies surrounding him and Axel, the next instant Axel had done a super attack and wiped all of them out. It was amazing or it would have been had the attack not cost Axel his life. Sora didn't know what to say as Axel lay there fading away, Axel had said a few things to him and created one last portal for them to go through to find and rescue Kairi. Sora wanted to try to do something to help him but couldn't think of anything. He didn't want to lose Axel now he still had so many questions for him, and that wasn't all. Axel had started to become like a friend to him, he even felt as though he had known Axel for a very long time. Sora continued to stare at Axel's fading form and couldn't think of anything to say so finally he just asked.<p>

"Axel, what were you trying to do?"

"I wanted to see Roxas," he responded, Axel struggled to speak and had to gasp for air between words. "He was the only one I liked. He made me feel like I had a heart. It's kind of funny you make me feel the same."

"Wait!" said Sora, "who is Roxas? I've heard so much about him and in all honesty I feel like I should know who he is. Was he an Organization member? Why am I having visions about him? Why can he use the key-blade?

"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" asked Axel, "What did you think I tried to turn you into a heartless. Why do you think people have called you Roxas? It's because Roxas is…

But before he could finish his sentence Axel faded into darkness leaving nothing behind. Sora stood transfixed unable to move. He shed a single tear for the fallen warrior and wondered what Axel was going to say. He stared off into space for a long time before finally stiffing his resolve and marching towards the end of the portal and into whatever destiny had in store for him.

* * *

><p>Riku was standing right outside a large floating castle in the sky. This was the headquarters of Organization XIII. It was a stronghold he was preparing to infiltrate but what would happen afterwards he didn't know. A lot was going through his mind as he stared wordlessly at the large castle and the significance it held for him. A noise distracted him from his thoughts as he turned around to investigate and noticed a small figure running towards him. He instantly recognized the figure as that of King Mickey who joined him by his side, they both turned back to stare at that castle and were silent for a long time before Mickey broke the silence.<p>

"Sora just arrived," he said, "he'll be here real soon, are you ready to meet him Riku?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," responded Riku.

"I know it's been a long time but you can't put it off any longer, besides we have to rescue Kairi," said Mickey.

"Yeah I know I'll go ahead and take care of that," replied Riku. "By the way was Axel with him?"

"No he's not with us anymore," said Mickey quietly, he took a short pause before saying the next part, "he's gone."

"I'm sorry to hear that, we could have used his help inside the castle I bet he knew a few hidden passages and such," Riku said before looking at Mickey and noticing he was glaring at him, "and also he was starting to become a good person, maybe he was even starting to get a heart. He risked so much in helping us after he left the Organization we won't forget his sacrifice."

"He did his part, now it's time to do ours," said Mickey as he readied his key-blade.

"Hey your majesty," began Riku, "do you think DIZ was right about what he said about Nobodies?"

"I don't know," answered Mickey, "I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. While there are some people who are bad and will never change I think most people deserve at least a second chance. What about you? You may have done some bad things but that doesn't make you a bad person. I've enjoyed the time I've spent with you Riku and I think you just did the wrong things but for the right reasons. Maybe that's true for DIZ as well. I think he actually regrets what happened to Roxas. What do you think?"

Riku thought for a moment before answering then said, "Yeah I think he does. "

**THE END**


	9. Epilogue Appendix

**Darkwing Duck Appendix**

_Ok I'm finally finished with my story. This appendix is to help you better visually imagine how this world might look, feel, and function were it to actually be included in Kingdom Hearts 2._

**St. Canard Music**

For the World Music (music that plays when you're walking around) I'm thinking something film noir. If you don't know what I'm talking about think like the jazzy background music in Roger Rabbit. I get the feeling it would be soft and cool. The series always struck me as being dark, deep, and cool.

For the Battle Music (music that plays when you're fighting) I definitely want the saxophone instrumental version of the theme song that plays at the end of each episode. I think this music is perfect for fighting!

* * *

><p><strong>St. Canard Layout<strong>

This is basically how I picture the world would be organized and explored if it were actually in the game.

The name of the area has "quotation marks" and is underlined. Each area has a name and that's how you tell what it is.

(Assume that any areas without save points are areas where you would fight heartless.)

When you first arrive on this world you'll appear on the "Audubon Bay Bridge". It's tall and long like in the series. You arrive in the middle and can only go one way at the beginning, towards the downtown area and the skyscrapers. Walk that way and it will lead you towards the next area.

The next location is "Bridge Crossway" It's an area with three different streets that lead off in three different directions. You can see the beginning of the streets but not where they end up. There's also a small toll both by one side of the bridge but I'll get to that later.

If you take the right path you'll be in "East Street" this pathway has buildings on the left side and is clear on the other side. It also has a jewelry store as one of the buildings. It's the same jewelry store where you track down Bushroot later you can enter into the store through the smashed window.

If you enter you be in the "Jewelry Store" It's a small area and pretty much looks like the inside of a jewelry store.

If you continue down the street you'll arrive at the "Outer Garden" It's a small garden like area with some vegetable and trees. This area is right before the Greenhouse you can see it in the this location and the road basically leads toward the door that leads you inside the Greenhouse.

Next you'll be in "Greenhouse: Main Room" It looks pretty much exactly like it does from the series so watch any episode involving Bushroot and you'll get a good idea of what it looks like. I think the first episode that features him shows a good shot of it. But there's also a side room.

Inside the greenhouse there are two rooms in the "Greenhouse: Side Room" is a S**ave-Point**. And that's the end of this route.

Going back to the "Bridge Crossway" we are now going to follow the right path.

The right path leads to "West Street" this pathway has buildings on the right side and nothing on the left it. On the right side in a bank, it like the jewelry store will have a smashed window and that's how you enter it.

When you enter you are in the "Bank" again it looks like a typical bank. I definitely has one of those large safe doors with the combination lock on it. It's a bit bigger than the jewelry store but not by much.

If you continue down the street you'll be at the "Harbor" There are a few docks on the side and maybe some ships as well. You can't travel down the docks but you can travel down the road where they are. Also you can see the lighthouse in this area and the road leads to the door that gets you in the lighthouse.

The first area you enter is the "Lighthouse: Foyer" It is similar to the entry way of Yen Sid's tower with a small landing and a spiral staircase that leads up to the next area. This foyer has a **Save-Point**.

If you go up the stairs you will find yourself in "Lighthouse: Attic" It looks exactly like it does in the series. The comic book episode is a good reference to watch for what this area looks like. This is the end of the left path.

Going back to the "Bridge Crossway" we are now going to the center path.

Walking down the center path leads you to "Main Street" this pathway has buildings on both sides of the street. It's a bit longer than the other pathways and doesn't have a secondary location in it. The path leads right outside the power plant.

The next area is the "Power Plant: Entrance" it's the area right outside the power plant. You can either go straight into the power plant or take the fire escape on the right side of the entrance that leads up to the roof.

Going up the fire escape leads to "Power Plant: Roof" This area has one of those roof windows that allows you to see inside down into the actual power plant. It also has a **Save-Point**.

If instead you go straight through the doors you'll be in the "Power Plant: Generators" this is a large wide location where you will fight the large heartless in the first half of the game. It has a high ceiling and some generators in the back. It also has two big electrical nodes where the beast latches onto. Once you defeat the boss, this area will still have heartless spawn in it.

Once again we find ourselves at the "Bridge Crossway" and we are now going to investigate the toll booth that is near the entrance to the Bridge. When Darkwing joins your party the first time he will lead you to the tollbooth and there is a reaction command that tells you about a secret switch that leads to a new path. If you choose to activate it then you can access a secret path that leads to the top of the bridge.

This time you're on the "Bridge Cables" it leads to the top of one of the pillars. You're basically climbing on the top of the bridge like you see Darkwing do in the opening. The area is littered with flying heartless. You can't fall off but the area is so narrow it's a little hard to maneuver in. The cables lead up to the top of the bridge pillar which is where Darkwing's secret hideout is.

Next you're in "Darkwing's Hideout" it looks like it does in the show. There are two large wide pillars like in the show with ladders on them the small area at the bottom has a S**ave-Point**. One of the pillars leads up to the breakfast training area. The other pillar leads to an area with a bunch of computers and stuff. Launchpad is in this area and you can talk to him.

Back on the" Audubon Bay Bridge" when you re-visit the world you can finally travel down the other side of the bridge. This leads to the Super villain prison.

The next area is the "Prison Island" it's the exterior of the Prison. I think there's an episode that show what the super villain jail looks like, but if not just imagine a generic looking prison. The area outside is barren and has a lot of sand and rocks you can go through the door to get inside.

Inside you are now in the "Prison Entrance" it's a small area. Unfortunately I've never been to prison (or I guess fortunately) so I'm not exactly sure how it would look. It has to have a large prison door with bars on it that leads to the next area. This is the door that traps you inside.

Next you are in the "Prison Cells" this place is a rectangular room that has rows of prison cells in it. It's simple and clean (get it).

That takes care of the areas of St. Canard.

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><p><strong>Mini-Game<strong>

Here I will briefly talk about the mini-game reaction command test. First of all this game is from the very first episode (Darkly Dawns the Duck Part 1) It's when Darkwing uses preparing breakfast as training for himself.

The goal of this game is to prepare the breakfast as you see Darkwing do in that scene. You start in the center of the room and have to move around to different locations and activate the reaction commands at the right time. Like I said this game is basically a test of how good you are at executing reaction commands. If you mess up even once you fail.

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><p><strong>Boss Fights<br>**

Spike

You fight him once as Roxas in 358/2 Days. Then again as Sora in KH II shortly after you first arrive in the world. It's pretty much a sub-boss. Spike will basically try to bite you sometimes he may do several rapid chomps in a row. He also has a vine grab attack where he sends out his vines to try and hold you in place before biting you. He's not too hard in either fight so you shouldn't have a hard time

Giant Venus Flytrap Heartless

I'm big Little Shop of Horrors Fan so that's kind of where I got the idea for this. I imagine the heartless would look a little like Audrey two in its final form. When this fight starts this heartless has electricity coursing through it. You have to get rid of the electric field before you attack it otherwise you'll be electrocuted. There are two parts to this fight. First you have to continually hit the heartless with thunder spells until it finally overloads and loses its electric shield; this will also stun it. Next you have to sever the vines that it has holding onto the power nodes to cut off its connection to power. Once that's done you can attack the heartless with impunity, but after awhile it will recover from being stunned and let out a loud roar. That's your cue to stop attacking as it will reach out it vines and reattach itself to the power nodes surrounding itself with electricity. Then you repeat the process again until the heartless is defeated.

Megavolt

There's not much to say. He's Megavolt he attacks with electricity. There are a few special attacks that he has that you need to watch out for. His dome attack is similar to Hercules from the first game he will gather electricity around him surrounding himself in a dome and then exploding it. You don't want to be in the dome when it explodes. He will also shoot out electricity at you in large waves so try to avoid that, however you can get close and REFLECT it if you want instead. His last attack is to summon bolts of lightning down at himself and then bounce it in three separate directions. You can also use REFLECT against this attack as well.

Things Megavolt Says

"Powering Up"

"Want More?"

"Electrifying"

When Defeated

"I'll get you for this"

Bushroot

Again this is Bushroot, he fights with the power of plants. Here are his special attacks. He has a sleep powder move where he scratches his head and sheds powder around. Its sleep powder if it touches you it may put you to sleep. His second attack is his root attack where he buries his feet in the ground and starts sending out large spiked roots to attack you. The spiked roots will seek you and your party members out, the only way to avoid them is to roll out of the way at just the right time before they come out of the ground and hit you. His last attack is his vine grab attack. He will send out his vine arms and try to grab you. If he gets you he'll lift you up in the air for a few seconds. You have a small window of opportunity to break free, but if you don't he'll hurl you straight into the ground dealing a lot of damage. Bushroot is weak to fire so use that to your advantage.

Things Bushroot Says

"Plants are Superior"

"I'll turn you into mulch"

"The sun gives me strength"

When Defeated

"I need some fertilizer"

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><p><strong>Darkwing Duck's Stats<strong>

Darkwing Duck is your ally for this world. He's mostly a physical attacker and has some good status ailment abilities that involve his gas gun. Here are his stats.

**Weapon:** Fighting Fist

**2 Armor Slots**

**2 Accessory Slots**

**4 Item Slots**

He's a melee fighter with a few interesting special abilities that affect status.**  
><strong>

_Unique Abilities: Every Character has these unique abilities. They are the blue ones._

**Dark Assault:** Darkwing launches into a three combo attack against an enemy.

**Vanish:** Darkwing disappears and then reappears near an enemy damaging them.

**Poison Gas:** Darkwing launches a plume of gas to poison nearby enemies.

**Sleep Gas:** Darkwing launches a plume of gas to put surrounding enemies to sleep.

**Shadow Showdown:** A Limit Attack that combines Sora and Darkwing's power to attack all enemies. Uses all of Sora's MP. (Sora and Darkwing vanish and teleport to different locations on the field. When they reappear they set off a small explosion that damages nearby enemies. They do this for five times before ending the attack with Darkwing launching a large cloud of smoke at enemies the gas has a good chance of confusing any enemies it comes in contact with.)

Other Abilities (The Green Ones)

Combo Plus

Combination Boost

Jackpot

Item Boost

MP Rage

Defender

Things Darkwing Says:

When Defeated: "I think I need a Band-Aid"

When Revived: "Singed, but triumphant"

When Item/Healed: "Thanks side-kick"

When Switched In: "Let's get dangerous"

When Using Limit Attack: "They won't see a thing"

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><p><strong>Key-blade obtained from this World<strong>

**Night-Guardian**-(Strength = 6 Magic = 0) The handle is shaped like Darkwing's gas gun with the shaft extending from it. The handle is colored the same as the gas gun. The shaft is purple like Darkwing's costume. The head is shaped like the Thunder-quack.

**Ability:** "Lights Out" 15% chance when you hit an enemy with it, they will fall asleep. (Does not apply to Bosses)

I don't remember if they have status ailments in KH II but even if they don't I figure you may as well have key-blade that helps you in this department. So here's one that can put them to sleep.

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><p><strong>Journal Entries<strong>

I'm just gonna do character profiles for this section. I'm pretty much telling the story so I'm not going to include Jimmy's story about what happened in the world. These are what I think the journal entries for the characters would be in Jimmeny's Journal

**Darkwing Duck:** The self-proclaimed "Protector of St. Canard." Darkwing has dedicated most of his life to defending this great city and the people in it. He is well versed in several forms of unarmed combat and a capable detective. His abilities have made him somewhat arrogant and he doesn't work well with other. Nevertheless he has a strong sense of justice and moral fiber that lead him to stop crime wherever it starts

First Appearance: "Darkwing Duck T.V. Show" (1991)

**Launchpad Mc. Quack:** Darkwing's loyal sidekick and pilot. Launchpad was Darkwing's biggest fan and managed to also become his sidekick, he assists Darkwing however he can and is also responsible for flying Drakwing's personal aircraft "The Thunder-quack." He may not be as fearsome a fighter as Darkwing but he is fiercely loyal and very kind.

First Appearance: "Duck-tales T.V. Show" (1987)

**Megavolt: **An electric villain from St. Canard. He is one of Darkwing's most fearsome opponents able to harness the power of electricity. Megavolt has tangled with Darkwing a great many times and never seems to be able to defeat him. Megavolt yearns to free the world's electrical devices from "tyranny." It would seem that he suffers from delusions.

First Appearance: "Darkwing Duck T.V. Show" (1991)

**Bushroot: **A mad scientist who somehow turned himself into a plant. Bushroot was experimenting with plants but through a lab accident mutated into a plant-like being. He is not particularly evil and more of an opportunist when it comes to stealing. Still he continues to commit crimes and therefore continues to encounter Darkwing.

First Appearance: "Darkwing Duck T.V. Show" (1991)

**Xion:** A mysterious young person who visited St. Canard sometime in the past. It seems she and Roxas visited the world together but it is unclear why. Sora feels as though he knows her but is unsure as to why. The fact that she wears a black cloak indicates that she may be working for Organization XIII.

**Roxas:** A youth from Twilight Town. Though he has been reported being seen in St. Canard. How he was able to get there or why he would want to be there is unknown. It has been revealed that he may also wield a key-blade and be in league with Organization XIII. Obviously there is more too Roxas than meets the eye.


End file.
